VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese people, especially the youth, have been familiar with iPhones for only a few years but long enough to create a trend of iPhone collection and generate “iPhone addicts”.

The “apple” has become inseparable from iPhone addicts: they bring iPhones with themselves any time and everywhere. And if the people are not busy with work, they spend their time stroking and admiring the phones.

“Since I purchased an iPhone, my friends say that I have become aloof,” Van, a young office worker in Tay Ho District in Hanoi, said. According to Van, it is because he cannot stay away from his iPhone. He holds the iPhone all the time: he puts the iPhone on the bedhead when sleeping, he brings the iPhone with him to toilet and he puts the phone into his pockets when he has to go out.

“I have become an iPhone addict, and now I do not intend to use any other kind of phones,” Van said.

“At friends’ meetings, when my friends are talking and laughing, I am busy surfing on Internet with my iPhone or accessing Cydia to browse applications., my friends get angry with me and note that I have become very aloof,” he explained.

“As the result, my friends do not ask me to go with them to cafés any more. They said: “Van now has an iPhone to play with, and he does not need friends any more”, he added.

Tuan Anh, who lives on Thai Thinh street in Hanoi, also said that he has never stayed away from his iPhone. “I always hold it in my hands, even when I don’t need to use it. I simply look at my phone or stroke it,” Anh said.

“When I am at the office, I sometimes put my phone on the table, turn it on and look into the screen. When I wait for the lift, I also pull it out from my pocket, admire it and then lock it and put it back into the pocket,” he continued.

“I sometimes fail to reach the floors I wanted, just because I was too busy admiring my iPhone and I forgot what I wanted to do,” he added

Linh, a friend of Anh, who is also an iPhone addict, related that one time, he went to see his girlfriend at her house. The girlfriend’s mother asked him many things about his work and plans, but he was too busy with his iPhone that he did not answer the questions. “If I were her mother, I would not allow my daughter to go with such an addict,” Linh smiled.
Linh, who has been using the iPhone for the past three years, related that the “apple” has changed his viewpoint about smartphones. “Several years ago, I once had an O2 phone, which cost a fortune. However, the O2 phone is really less valuable than the apple,” he said.

Not only boys, but young girls have also become addicted to iPhones. Lan Huong, a media officer in District 1 in HCM City, said she was very proud of owning an iPhone. Huong said she has installed many applications, including the ones which Huong still does not know. “When I walk in the street, I like turning Foursquare on to define the destination. If I see something interesting, I will turn Hipstamatic on to take picture and then I share them on Facebook with my friends,” Huong said.

“The iPhone can do many things for me. Therefore, I have become a person of few words,” she added.

Hai Nam, a connoisseur in District 3, HCM City said that iPhones have made many people “go crazy”. The words “iPhone has no rival” or “iPhone No 1” can be seen everywhere on telecom forums. iPhone fans are always ready to defend their view that iPhone is the most excellent product. Meanwhile, other people criticize them as being like “the frog at the bottom of the well, who believe that the sky is as small as the lid of a cooking pot”.

for Nam, phone is just a tool that serves people’s life. “Nowadays, smart phones can replace computers, cameras, music players. However, people should not be too reliant on them and forget about the life around. Smart phones need smart users,” Nam said.

Quoc Huy