VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of tablet models have seen the prices drop sharply. However, Vietnamese people have become less hot on tablets, which have made tablets sell more slowly.

Downward trend move obvious

Previously, when tablets first hit the market, they were considered “luxurious” to many consumers. The products were reserved for high income earners only because they were very expensive. HTC Flyer, for example, was priced at 18 million dong.

However, things have got quite different. Tablets have become more easily attainable as they are getting cheaper. Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 is now sold by FPT Shop at 9.8 million dong instead of 11.8 million dong. The manufacturer has eased the sale price of the sale after it launched the 7 inch version products priced at 12.5 million dong with beautiful design and more outstanding features.

HTC’s Flyer has also seen the prices drop sharply. It was sold at 18 million dong when it first hit the market in the second half of 2011. However, the price then dropped to 12.5 million dong and to 11.5 million dong. The price decrease has been anticipated, because if comparing with other Android-based products on the market, it does not have any preeminent features, except the associated touch pen.

The sharpest price decrease has been seen with BlackBerry’s PlayBook, which was sold at 16 million dong in the past and 7-8 million dong now.

Only iPads remain attractive to users with the lowest price decreases. iPad 1 have run out, while iPad 2’s prices have decreased very slightly by 200,000 or 300,000 dong. Some versions of Archos, Acer, Asus Transformer have seen the prices decreasing by hundreds of thousands of dong or one million dong.

Selling slowly

Despite the sharp price decreases, the sales of the products have not improved much. Thegioididong.com and Vien Thong A, the two biggest hi-tech distributors in Vietnam, both have reported that these are not hot products.

In fact, the slow sale has been foreseeable. Vietnamese people do not find the products really useful to them, while the products mainly can satisfy the demand for entertainment of web surfing. Meanwhile, manufacturers have continuously launched new products into the market, leading to the depreciation of the old models.

There is another reason that keeps people hesitant to buy tablets. Manufacturers have announced that they will market new products with thin design and more powerful processors. They have promised to equip tablets with quad core processor chip which allows to process more quickly. Besides, many people decide to wait to buy iPad 3, which is thought to launch the market soon.

It was estimated that approximately one million tablets were consumed in Vietnam in 2011. With a lot of technological improvements, new tablet products would make the market more bustling and boost sales. Besides the products using Android, iOS operation system, there would be the tablets using Windows 8.

Le Toan, a senior executive of thegioididong.com, believes that there would be three main market segments in 2012. Archos, Kingcom, FPT, ZTE would launch popular products with the prices affordable to many people. Meanwhile, the middle class market segment would be dominated by Acer, Asus(Transfomer), iPad 16G Wifi/3G, Samsung (Galaxy Tab P7500, P6200), Kindle Fire. The high grade products would be iPad 32G Wifi/3G, Samsung Galaxy Tab P6800, Aus (Transformer Prime).

In the latest news, Viettel, a military telecom company, has announced that it will market a low cost tablet by the second quarter of the year costing under 200 dollars. It is also following necessary steps to put out smart phones, slated by the fourth quarter of 2012.

Source: TBKTSG, Buu dien