VietNamNet Bridge – When the tablet priced at 1.8 million dong was marketed, analysts thought that this was the lowest price and that the tablet prices could not be lower. However, they were mistaken.

Since the beginning of 2012, Vietnamese enterprises BiPad, Pi Vietnam have continuously launched new tablet models with surprisingly low sale prices, or have slashed the prices of existing models to less than 2 million dong. BiPad 9, for example, is priced at 1.98 million dong, PI E002 of PI Vietnam at 1.8 million dong.

No more new low cost tablet models have hit the market over the last few months since the launching of PI E002. Therefore, analysts thought that manufacturers would have no more solutions to slash the tablet prices further, and that making less-than-2-million-dong products proves to be impossible.

However, Buu Dien Vietnam has quoted its sources as saying that a new tablet model would hit the market in some days, which has the sale price at 1.6 million dong.

Nguyen Viet Anh, Business Director of BiPad, has affirmed that the low cost market segment for the tablet products priced at less than 2 million dong remains very potential. Especially, he said, manufacturers could think of the products with the prices of below 1 million dong. The low cost tablet users would those, who need tablets for simple uses, such as playing games, surfing on Internet.

“The low cost products need to be less than 1.5 million dong, or less than 1 million dong to be cheap enough to attract clients,” he said.

Domestic manufacturers, who believe that they cannot compete with foreign ones in the high grade market segment, have been gathering strength to penetrate the low cost market.

Statistics show that low cost tablets have been selling very well on the market.

Sohoa newspaper has reported that the foreign made devices using Android operation system with 7 inch screen priced at 5 million dong have been selling very well. These include Hyundai A7, ViewSonic VB734, PI C001 and Archos Arnova 7 G2.

Some distributors have said that the three summer months would be the low sale season of hi-tech products in Vietnam. However, the demand for low cost products remains very big.

Tablet traders believe that the competition of Android-run tablet products would be very stiff from August 2012, when Android tablets would have to compete fiercely, not only with each other but also with the tablets running on Windows 8 with strong configuration.

The distributors have also said that the information about some low cost tablet models at less than 200 dollars of famous manufacturers such as Apple, Google and Kindle Fire which would hit the market in the near future has much affected customers’ purchase plans.

However, they said, the products in Vietnam would be valued at no less than 4-5 million dong. While the products are considered as “low cost,” they would not be put among cheap products in Vietnam. Xuan Tung, a salesman at Giang Minh Digital Equipment Shop on Le Thanh Nghi Street in Hanoi said that the tablets with the price of 1.6 million dong and 7 inch screens would fit the pocket of popular consumers.

Source: Buu Dien, Sohoa