VietNamNet Bridge – Prices of many smart phone models have fallen strongly in the lead up to the traditional Lunar New Year holiday or Tet, making the local market much more bustling than in previous months.

The Touch Lai Q4 smart phone model has been launched by MobiiStar. Prices of several smart phones have fallen strongly in the lead up to the Tet holiday.

Doan Van Hieu Em, mobile phone sales director of Thegioididong.com, said his company had discounted prices of many kinds of smart phones sharply to stir up demand.

The discounts are seen at most new mobile phone models whose prices were kept unchanged for a long time but makers and retailers have had no choice but to lower the prices at the end of the year.

In particular, HTC and Nokia have made the sharpest discounts. The price of HTC 8X mobile phones was quoted at VND13.8 million a unit in late 2012 but now it is being offered at only VND4.4 million, tumbling nearly 70%. Meanwhile, Nokia last Friday announced Lumia 925 smart phones would be sold at VND8.9 million each from Monday instead of the previous level of VND10.9 million.

In December, Samsung Vietnam decided to cut the price by 11.9% to VND3.19 million from the previous VND3.62 million for each Galaxy Trend S7560 and 6% to VND5.1 million a unit from VND5.4 million for Samsung Galaxy Core.

Similarly, Sony has reduced the price of Sony Z Ultra from VND18 million each to VND14 million while lowering that of Sony Xperia Z to VND13 million from VND15.5 million.

The presence of mobile phone giants in the discounting race has attracted many other makers as well. Even OPPO, a mobile phone maker that entered the local market less than one year ago, also joins the race discounting prices, with its OPPO Find Muse R821 slashed by up to VND610,000 to VND2.89 million each from VND3.5 million.

Ngo Nguyen Kha, managing director of MobiiStar that has launched Touch Lai Q4 mobile phones recently, said that the smart phone market will continue to see fierce competition this year. This is really a tough fight among mobile phone makers, which will benefit consumers who will have more choices to use new models at more affordable prices.

Kha forecast medium-level products worth VND4-7 million a unit will see the toughest competition among makers.

The market research and consulting firm Spire has recently asserted the local smart phone market will grow strongly this year.

Speaking with the Daily, Aditya Teja Laksana, a Spire mobile phone and mobile devices senior expert, said that the local mobile phone market will develop at double-digit growth thanks to the vigorous growth of smart phones.

“The trend of switching to using smart phones from feature phones is seen very strong among local consumers. The number of feature phone users now makes up 77% of the total number at home while that of smart phone users only represents 23% but the rate is expected to rise sharply soon,” Aditya said.

Source: SGT