VietNamNet Bridge – Smart phones would be the fulcrum of the mobile phone retail market, with 42 percent of Vietnamese users saying they would use smart phones instead of normal phones in the near future.

The shifting to use smart phones proves to be an inevitable tendency in Vietnam. GenK has reported that the habits of mobile phone users have changed a lot. Playing games, accessing to social networks, checking mails, finding ways on maps and searching on Internet are the most popular operations of the modern mobile phone users.

The figure can be found in the report on the use of smart phones released by Nielsen, which conducted a survey in 39 countries in Asia Pacific, including Vietnam.

The survey has found out that 70 percent of Vietnamese consumers still use feature phones, but 42 percent of which said they would shift to use smart phones in the next six months.

Most Vietnamese people usually consult with friends, families or colleagues before they buy mobile phones. 39 percent of them make decisions when seeing the mobile phone models displayed at shops, while only six percent of consumers seek information about smart phones from ad leaflets.

Analysts have pointed out that the increase in the number of smart phone users has led to the increase in the use of mobile Internet, especially the apps of social networks and searching tools. In June 2012, nearly 62 percent of smart phone users in Vietnam surfed on Internet with their smart phones, while the other 23 percent accessed to social networks.

Commenting about the smart phone market segment, Nguyen Van Hoa, Deputy General Director of Vien Thong A, a big mobile phone distributor in Vietnam, said smart phone would be the fulcrum of the mobile phone market in the context of the gradual purchasing power decreases since the beginning of the year.

Hoa said that smart phone market would witness a boom, while the models priced at between 2.8 and 3.5 million dong would be the best sellers. Especially, consumers would still be able to buy the phones priced at less than 2 million dong. These are not smart phones, but they have the basic functions of smart phones. The owners of the phones would enjoy the touch screen technology, play games and use popular apps on the basis of the prevailing smart phone apps.

Sharing the same view with Vien Thong A, Dinh Anh Huan, Business Director of thegioididong.com, also a big hi-tech product distributor, also said that low cost smart phones would help warm up the market, because people still want to possess new-technology products, but they do not want to spend too much money.

Low cost smart phones have also been listed in the production plans by the world’s most famous mobile phone manufacturers, such as Samsung, Nokia, HTC and LG. Domestic companies have also jumped on the bandwagon, including Mobistar, Q-Mobile or Viettel.

Analysts have commented that low cost smart phone could be the only way out for domestic mobile phone brands for now. In the past, they once did well in the low cost normal mobile phone market. However, the revenue from the market has decreased dramatically when well known manufacturers also began launching low cost products into the market.

Therefore, domestic firms need to find a new niche market to exploit to avoid the confrontation with foreign powerful manufacturers.

Mobistar, a Vietnamese mobile phone manufacturer, has marketed Touch S01 smart phone with 5.0 megapixel camera, integrated Nhaccuatui.com (online music store), running on Android operation system. The model has the retail price at less than 3 million dong.

Meanwhile, Viettel has introduced smart phone i5 priced at 4.25 million dong which uses two simcards.

Compiled by Thu Uyen