Vietnam became Apple’s hottest market
Vietnam has suddenly become Apple’s hottest market after sales there tripled in the company’s fiscal first half (September 2013 to March 2014), a growth rate five times faster than in India where Apple is spending heavily in a battle for market share, Reuters reported.
Vietnam has barely received a mention from Apple executives in their regular briefings for financial analysts. But in a quarterly conference call on April 23, they were talking up the potential of the country.
Quarterly iPhone sales more than doubled and the strong growth appears likely to continue given Vietnam’s predominantly young, tech-savvy population, rapid growth in internet and mobile phone use and a projected doubling of the middle class by 2020.
Vietnamese tech firms are fast cropping up, churning out apps such as Flappy Bird, which rose from obscurity to become one of the world’s most downloaded mobile games. Young Vietnamese thronging stores to buy iPhones worth up to half of their country’s 2012 gross per-capita income say it’s worth it.
The surge in demand comes against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth exacerbated by high levels of bad loans and business closures. The economy grew 5.4 percent last year, a rate economists see as underwhelming given Vietnam’s fast population growth and its retail and manufacturing potential.
But Vietnamese smartphone sellers say a hunger for higher social status is driving Apple’s sales, helped by price cuts and payment plans that make it easier to digest handset prices that exceed the monthly income of most urbanites.
According to data released in January by market research firm GfK, smartphones accounted for 77 per cent of mobile sales in Vietnam last year and the number of units sold grew nearly 135 per cent from a year earlier. Tablet sales soared 250 per cent in 2013 as prices fell by close to 27 per cent.
Many companies are looking closely at Vietnam, where 15 million people live in two main cities, only 30 million use the internet among a 90 million population and two thirds are under 30 years of age.
Vietnam has suddenly become Apple's hottest market after sales there tripled in the company's fiscal first half (September 2013 to March 2014), a growth rate five times faster than in India where Apple is spending heavily in a battle for market share, Reuters reported. Vietnam has barely received a mention from Apple executives in their regular briefings for financial analysts. But in a quarterly conference call on April 23, they were talking up the potential of the country. Quarterly iPhone sales more than doubled and the strong growth appears likely to continue given Vietnam's predominantly young, tech-savvy population, rapid growth...
Vietnam has suddenly become Apple’s hottest market after sales there tripled in the company’s fiscal first half (September 2013 to March 2014), a growth rate five times faster than in India where Apple is spending heavily in a battle for market share, Reuters reported.
Vietnam has barely received a mention from Apple executives in their regular briefings for financial analysts. But in a quarterly conference call on April 23, they were talking up the potential of the country.
Quarterly iPhone sales more than doubled and the strong growth appears likely to continue given Vietnam’s predominantly young, tech-savvy population, rapid growth in internet and mobile phone use and a projected doubling of the middle class by 2020.
Vietnamese tech firms are fast cropping up, churning out apps such as Flappy Bird, which rose from obscurity to become one of the world’s most downloaded mobile games. Young Vietnamese thronging stores to buy iPhones worth up to half of their country’s 2012 gross per-capita income say it’s worth it.
The surge in demand comes against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth exacerbated by high levels of bad loans and business closures. The economy grew 5.4 percent last year, a rate economists see as underwhelming given Vietnam’s fast population growth and its retail and manufacturing potential.
But Vietnamese smartphone sellers say a hunger for higher social status is driving Apple’s sales, helped by price cuts and payment plans that make it easier to digest handset prices that exceed the monthly income of most urbanites.
According to data released in January by market research firm GfK, smartphones accounted for 77 per cent of mobile sales in Vietnam last year and the number of units sold grew nearly 135 per cent from a year earlier. Tablet sales soared 250 per cent in 2013 as prices fell by close to 27 per cent.
Many companies are looking closely at Vietnam, where 15 million people live in two main cities, only 30 million use the internet among a 90 million population and two thirds are under 30 years of age.
