VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese mobile phone brands can be compared with a mass of vegetable sprouts. Seeds have been sowed on the fertile soil – the lucrative market with high demand – and sprouts have been springing up like mushroom. However, the sprouts would fall down just after a rain.

Vietnamese mobile phone manufacturers once cherished the hope of dominating the low cost mobile phone market. However, their plan has failed completely once the world’s big guys like Nokia and Samsung decided to target the market segment.

Carl Ngo Nguyen Kha, CEO of Mobiistar, admitted that as soon as big manufacturers give a sound beating, domestic enterprises would have to leave the market.

After the rain, only several vegetable sprouts still can exist.

The direct confrontation

Vietnamese manufacturers have to go a thorny path to develop. They not only have to struggle to exist under the hard pressure from the big guys and to scramble with other domestic enterprises for the small remaining parts of the market.

Analysts have noted that the rival between Mobiistar and Qmobile has become stiffer than ever. Both of them target the same groups of customers and make the same types of products.

It is known to everyone that Vietnamese brand mobile phones have been outsourced to China. According to An Binh Tel’s CEO Nguyen Quang Minh, domestic enterprises make up 70 percent, or the “spiritual part” of the products, while the other 30 percent, or the hardware, is made in China.

The confrontation of the two brands is carried out mostly in the 70 percent part of the products.

After Q-Mobile launched Qsmart series with Qsmart S53, S12, S15, S21, Mobiistar also marketed the models with similar features – large screens, 2 simcards, high configuration. These include Mobiistar Touch Lai 502, 504, Mobiistar Touch kem 350, 425.

The manufacturers both have their advantages to conquer consumers’ hearts. Q-Mobile with Qstore, Mobiistar with Mobiistore both have built up stores and games suitable to domestic users. Especially, Mobiistar has been determined to follow a “long run battle” when setting up a branch in Chinese Shenzhen to control the quality of products made here.

Regarding the prices, though offering the products with high configuration, powerful chips and special features (users can watch 3D films without glasses, for example), the products of the two manufacturers have been priced at no more than VND5 million, which is just equal to a half of the prices of well-known brands.

Low cost smart phones, the battle in upcoming days

While some experts believe that one should not make investment in the low cost market segment, because the larger production would bring bigger loss, low cost products have been the main source of income for Vietnamese mobile manufacturers.

Q-Mobile, for example, reported that smart phones just account for 20 percent of the total sold products, but bring 60 percent of the revenue. Meanwhile, Mobiistar said smart phones bring 80 percent of its revenue.

The competition among Vietnamese brands is believed to last for a long time, because the market demand remains very high. The Vietnamese mobile phone market in the first half of 2013 witnessed the sharp rise of low cost smart phone models.

The Gioi Di Dong, the biggest phone distribution chain has reported the 10 percent increase in the sales of low cost products.

NCDT