Local demand for smartphones will grow strongly this year, Hung Cong Hien, director of the electronics products trading center under FPT Trading Company said, citing their decreasing prices.

Hien noticed that more Vietnamese are inclined to buy smartphones as their prices are getting cheaper.

“The local smartphone segment posted growth of nearly 50% last year and it is expected to continue to grow strongly in the near future,” he noted. FPT Trading in August 2012 joined forces with Lenovo to launch low-cost smartphones onto the local market, he said.

“This is just our initial step but we have gained sales growth that is much better than expected,” he noted.

According to Hien, FPT Trading will speed up distribution of Lenovo-labeled smartphones in the local market, with each priced from VND2.5 million to more than VND6 million. The products run on a new version of Android and use MTK microprocessor.

Along with FPT, many other mobile and telecom services providers are also in the race to distribute smartphones.

Viettel early last month opened 23 outlets in HCMC and Danang. The stores feature high-class and low-cost items like HTC OneX, Samsung Galaxy SIII, Nokia Lumina 610 and 900 and Samsung S Galaxy S Duos. Customers will be given preferential Smart fee package monthly with up to 1,000 minutes of calls plus 2GB Internet access depending on products.

Similarly, local mobile phone firm MobiStar has just introduced Kem 462 brand and Qmobile has offered Qsmart S12 buyers early this month.

A recent report of market research company IDC Vietnam shows that the sales volume of smartphones in Vietnam recorded the highest in the third quarter last year, with domestic firms taking the lion’s share. Specially, local firm Qmobile is in the top five of smartphone producers at home, IDC’s report says.

The Saigon Times Daily