VietNamNet Bridge – The number of smart phones on the Vietnamese market is big enough, while the Vietnamese people are rich enough to buy any apps they want. The problem now is that they do not spend money on Vietnamese apps.

What do users say?

Le Do Anh Thu, a student of the HCM City National University, said that when using Yellow Page (VYP) of TMS, she can see a lot of strong points of the product. For example, it can provide the names and the addresses of restaurants, amusement centers, learning centers near the current positions of the users very quickly. It can also show the way to the addresses, while users do not have to check the map. Especially, the interface of the application is relatively friendly to Vietnamese people.

However, according to Thu, the database of Yellow Page is not profuse, while the idea is not new. Therefore, she would rather seek information on Google than on the Yellow Page.

Regarding the app which allows to send messages automatically (Auto SMS) of TMS, Thu said the app proves to be very useful for the people, who are always busy and cannot receive calls or forget to answer messages. However, the disadvantage of the app is that it does not allow to save the messages automatically sent. Besides, Auto SMS does not have many features in comparison with other software pieces with the same functions.

Duong The Vinh, a student of FPT University, said that he usually uses Socbay iMedia (Naiscorp) to read daily news which are generalized from different sources and can be arranged in a reasonable way. The app, according to Vinh, also allows people to easily search for information when necessary.

“I also use Socbay iMedia to listen to music and download music to my phone, while no need to send SMS, while the costs are relatively low,” Vinh said.

However, Vinh is still not satisfactory about Socbay iMedia because it does not have much support to users in Streaming Video like YouTube. “You have to download and select the formats for films (MP4, Flv, 3gp, Avi…) which fit your equipments,” Vinh said.

IT solution providers: too many barriers

Tran Phuc Hong, Director of TMS, said that TMS is now concentrating on two major groups of products – the apps for businesses (mobile portal, mobile survey, mobile commerce, mobile Intranet, Biz SMS), and the apps for individual clients.

However, Hong said, the biggest obstacle TMS is facing is that businesses still have not got familiar to using mobile apps in their business. “Most of businesses think that the apps for mobile phone are just for entertainment, while they cannot serve as the tools to support their business,” he said.

However, TMS still decided to develop the group of products for businesses, because it believes that Vietnam, sooner or later will follow the common tendency in the world.

The second challenge, according to Hong, is that the distribution network of the products has not developed yet, while a market of apps for mobile phone has not taken shape which serves as the place for everyone to join and make creation.

According to Ho Minh Duc, Deputy General Director of Naiscorp, the habits of mobile phone users are quite different from that of Internet users. “It will take time to make research to understand the habits and culture of mobile device users. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, there are very few market surveys on the issue,” Duc said.

60-70 percent of mobile phones in Vietnam are low end products with limited memories, which cannot run the apps for mobile phones like smart phones.

Therefore, Duc said, Naiscorp has decided to cooperate with mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung and LG to build up the apps compatible to the products.

Source: TBKTSG