Published:  09:48 Thursday - October 25, 2012

Despite the current big economic difficulties, the mobile phone market has been growing steadily. The national economy has spent billions of dollars to import the luxurious products.

A report by the General Department of Customs (GDC) has shown that Vietnam had spent 3.7 billion dollars by October 15 to import mobile phones and accessories.

The money spending race

The people, who call themselves the authentic citizens of the digital age, have been showing off their newly bought iPhone 5s on Facebook, Yahoo! and other social networks. Classified ads of newspapers show the offers to sell iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, nearly brand new, because the products’ owners are going to buy the latest generation iPhone – iPhone 5.

Nguyen Dong, 28, an office worker in HCM City, said he has sold his iPhone 4 at 8 million dong, and then bought an iPhone 5 at 23 million dong right after seeing the iPhone 5 in the hands of a colleague. 

When asked why Dong insists on an iPhone 5, though his iPhone 4 still keeps working properly, Dong said he is a fan of high technology products, which would become out of date just overnight.

Huu, a businessman in district 10 of HCM City, said that he is a loyal client of Apple’s products. Therefore, he has many Apple’s things, including iPhone 3, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, and the New iPad.

“Previously, I kept every product of Apple, but I have just sold some of them, because they have been left unused,” he said, adding that he has bought the New iPad for the daughter who likes listening to music and playing games.

Especially, a lot of Vietnamese people tried to possess an iPhone 5 very soon; right after the first products hit the shelves in the US. Apple’s announced retail prices are 199, 299 and 399 dollars, while some Vietnamese people accepted to pay 30 million dong, or nearly 1500 dollars, to have the super products soon, before the products are available on a large scale in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese tendency of using luxurious expensive products instead of reasonable ones has helped make new high technology products sell like hot cakes in Vietnam, even though Vietnam is just a small part of the world’s high technology product market.

Too much dollar spent on luxurious products

Also according to the General Department of Customs, the import turnover of mobile phones and phone accessories in the first nine months of the year reached 3.44 billion dollars, an increase of 92 percent over the same period of the last year.

The figure would be even higher if counting on the mobile phones carried to Vietnam across the border gates by the people entering the country 

A report by IDC Vietnam market survey firm showed that though the mobile market witnessed a decline in the second quarter in comparison with the first quarter of 2012, it still obtained the two-digit growth rate of 10.9 percent over the same period of the last year.

The 10.9 percent growth rate has been described as “impressive” in the context of the big economic difficulties with very high inventory index.

The two high technology groups in the world Nokia and Samsung still hold the biggest market share in Vietnam. Nokia had led the market by the second quarter of the year with 50 percent of the mobile phones sold on Vietnam bearing Nokia brand. Meanwhile, Samsung keeps leading the smart phone market.

Dr Nguyen Minh Phong has warned that the overly high spending on luxurious imports would have negative impacts on the national economy. Vietnam ha been wasting money on non-essential goods, while a lot of businesses complain they cannot buy foreign currencies to make payment for the import materials needed for local production.

 Le Khac