VietNamNet Bridge – The feverish demand for iPhone 5 in Vietnam will not affect sales of other smartphone brands, trading companies said.

Hoang Ngoc Vy, general director of Vien Thong A JSC, said sales of other high-end smartphones at her company remained intact even though iPhone 5 had arrived in the country.

Similarly, Dinh Anh Huan, sales director of The Gioi Di Dong JSC, said customers had kept a wait-and-see attitude toward the debut of iPhone 5, thus affecting sales of other smartphone brands at his firm for a while. But now things have returned to normal, he said.

According to traders, the fact that iPhone 5 is still trickling in has left an insignificant impact on other brands.

Moreover, Samsung, Sony, HTC and Nokia, among others have promotions in place, the traders noted.

Compared to the time before iPhone 5’s launch on the local market, this gadget has become less attractive to customers due to two reasons, Tran Quoc Trung, branch director of Mai Nguyen Luxury store chain, pointed out.

The price of iPhone 5 is too high, Trung said, adding some technical problems with it have been detected.

However, both Vien Thong A and The Gioi Di Dong affirmed that they would distribute iPhone 5 via official imports from late this month to satisfy domestic demand.

The local price of iPhone 5 is around VND21.88 million, down by nearly VND3.2 million against a week ago.

Apple has launched iPhone 5 for sale since September 21 in Britain, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Japan, Australia, Germany and France. The firm predicted the luxury product would be available in 31 nations during last month.

In Hong Kong, an iPhone 5 with a wifi capability and 16GB sells for about US$720 (VND14.4 million), while a 32GB version is priced at US$823 and a 64GB item at US$926. In the U.S., iPhone 5 costs around US$649 or VND13 million a unit for the wifi type of 16G.

Telcos rush to import iPhone 5 nano simcards

Local mobile services providers are in a race to import nano simcards for users of iPhone 5.

Speaking to the Daily, Nguyen Thu Hong, public relations director of Vinaphone, said her firm had successfully piloted the usage of the nano simcard on iPhone 5. This month Vinaphone will import this type of simcard to satisfy local demand, she said.

Declining to disclose a specific import volume, Hong said the volume will be small given a small number of iPhone 5 owners in Vietnam at the moment.

Similarly, Viettel also plans to import the nano simcard this month.

MobiFone announced the successful test of a nano simcard, saying it will import about 50,000 pieces in the next two weeks.

According to Dinh Viet Hung, marketing and telecom charge director of MobiFone, his company will launch the sale of nano simcards in the next fortnight.

The nano simcard as a new standard endorsed by Europe in June is 30% smaller and 15% thinner than the micro-simcard.

The nano simcard will sell for the same price as the normal one and they can be used for all kinds of cell phone. Mobile services suppliers said nano simcard buyers would not be required to buy iPhone 5.

In the meantime, MK Smart, a domestic producer specializing in smart cards and phone simcards, said it would produce the nano simcard in Vietnam with a monthly capacity of 10 million units. The firm said it would be supplying the product to local telecom firms.

MK Smart is the only business in Vietnam able to produce nano simcards, the firm’s CEO Nguyen Hai Ha said. Furthermore, the quality of MK Smart products is as good as that of imported ones while their prices are competitive, he added.

When asked about the ability of using locally-made nano simcards, Hong said her company had long been in partnership with a foreign firm over this matter. However, Vinaphone will consider shifting to using Vietnamese-made simcards if domestic producers can supply ones meeting quality and pricing requirements, she said.

VietNamNet/SGT