VietNamNet Bridge – After a period of rapid growth, entertainment devices HDbox and the 3D TV market in Vietnam have entered a serious crisis period.

HDBox selling slowly

After “making history” with the 3-year presence on the domestic market, entertainment devices HDbox has become less favored in Vietnam. The market has become saturated despite the increasingly high demand for enjoying high quality films.

The sales of HD players have dropped by more than 30 percent, while the profits have decreased by 50 percent in comparison with the last year. Only low cost products (less than 2 million dong) can be sold, while the ones priced at over 4 million dong have been left unsold, according to Manh Ha, the owner of a HD player shop.

The decline of the computer market would not surprise anyone, because this has been anticipated. However, the fall of the HDbox market is really a problem, because it should be developing in accordance with the increasing demand to upgrade the entertainment quality.

Minh Duc in Hanoi said that one HDbox would be enough to use forever, because there have been no changes with the products in both the functions and efficiency over the last few years.

“The HDbox I purchased last year at 2 million dong remains very good for listening music and watching TVs. Why do I have to buy another one, then?” Duc said.

The products with familiar brands TVIX (TizzBird), Dune or HDLife, EAGET have still been available on the market with unchanged designs.

In 2011, consumers experienced a difficult time when the floods in Thailand caused the production stagnation at factories, thus leading to the price increase of 100 percent for all products. However, HDD prices had decreased to reasonable levels by early July.

However, the good news still cannot help stimulate the demand in the HDbox market, because the demand for data storage has become saturated after a period of increasing rapidly. People nowadays do not keep the habit of downloading films for storage any more.

Nguyen Trung in Hanoi said that previously, he usually downloaded Blue-ray standardized films for watching and saving, and he usually had to buy hardware. However, he has changed his habit. “I would download the things I want and then erase the films to save the space,” he said.

A redoubtable rival of HDbox is the appearance of high quality TV packages, from digital TV to IPTV. With the service fee of 80,000 dong a month, HD TV programs and Video on Demand on IPTV basis allow people to watch films immediately, no need to download to HDbox.

Sellers once hoped that smart HDBox with readily installed Android operation system would be the new choice for users. However, even the products are not favored by consumers with unattractive apps.

3D TV sales falling dramatically

June was hoped to be a high TV sale season, because Euro championship took place in that month. However, things did not happen the way traders expected. TVs, and especially 3D TVs did not see prosperity in the Euro season, if compared with World Cup 2010.

Hoang Ha, a salesman of a home appliance center, said it’s really difficult to persuade people to spend 10 million dong to buy a 3D TV, if the majority of the current TV channels only provide 2D TV programs.

LG and Samsung have been trying to stimulate the demand by offering an HDbox as a gift for every TV sold. However, the move has not helped generate any improvement in the 3D TV market segment.

Vu Trung