SBC: Phones

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Jan 9, 2013

Vietnam - Import rules on phones, cosmetics relaxed

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Industry and Trade on Monday, Jan 7, abolished a regulation that restricted traders to importing mobile phones, wines and spirits and cosmetics through three specific routes.

The decision, with effect immediately, permits traders to import through all ports and by road, rail and air. The restrictions were lifted in a bid to help struggling businesses.

"This is good news for mobile phone traders like us," said a senior representative from Tran Anh, a mobile phone importer in Ha Noi, "and it will also help reduce phone prices and give a wider range of models".

In May 2011, the Customs Department issued a notice that required the imports to enter Viet Nam through customs clearance facilities at international seaports in HCM City, Hai Phong and Da Nang.

It also required additional customs documentation to be provided and an obligation to have these documents approved by the consulate of Viet Nam in the exporting country.

The restrictions prompted many complaints from Viet Nam's mobile phone networks and handset retailers as it had the potential to drive up costs and put a damper on handset sales.

They said banning imports by road, rail, air and other seaports would cause disruption in export patterns and trade losses.

Furthermore, obtaining additional documentation and having it consulate-approved caused an additional burden, cost and delay.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said Viet Nam imported US$4.47 billion worth of cell phones last year, a 70 per cent increase year-on-year.

New mobile subscribers in Viet Nam have gone from 19 million in 2006 to 98 million in 2009 and more than 123 million last year.

Source: VNS

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Oct 31, 2012

Vietnam – Made-in-Vietnam phones only have plastic covers made in Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s phone set exports have been increasing steadily year after year. However, most of the exports are made by foreign invested enterprises.

According to the General Department of Customs (GDC), the phone set export turnover had reached 9.24 billion dollars by mid October 2012, an increase of 4.66 billion dollars (101.8 percent) in comparison with the same period of the last year.

Phone manufacturers still have been gaining high growth rates despite the economic downturn. However, “phone manufacturers” here mean foreign invested enterprises, not Vietnamese.

The made-in-Vietnam products

Vietnam reportedly exports 2.3 billion dollars’ worth of phone sets in 2010. Since that year, phones have been added into the list of the key export items of Vietnam and the list of the products with high growth rates.

In the first nine months of 2012, the phone set export turnover reached 8.63 billion dollars, up by 122 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year.

However, the high export turnover does not mean the strong development of the Vietnamese phone manufacturing industry.

2009 and 2010 were considered the golden age for the manufacturers that make the products bearing Vietnamese brands, namely Q-Mobile and Bluefone.

The “Vietnamese brand mobile phones” means the products are bearing Vietnamese brands, but are made in China. The only thing that can be made in Vietnam is just the phone’s plastic cover, which makes up less than one percent of the value of the product.

“We don’t have chip, board or battery manufacturing factories. How can we make really Vietnamese mobile phone products?” said Dinh Anh Huan, Business Director of The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World), one of the biggest mobile phone distribution chains in Vietnam.

Dr Nguyen Minh Phong, a well-known economist, said that Vietnamese enterprises deserve no credit for the high achievement.

The big export turnover of mobile phone products has been associated with the South Korean manufacturer Samsung whose export turnover is up to one billion dollars a month.

What does it mean by “Vietnamese phone industry?”

Experts all affirm that Vietnam still cannot make mobile phone products from A to Z. Vu Minh Tri, General Director of Microsoft Vietnam, said Vietnamese enterprises just simply assemble parts, or import finished products for domestic sale, do the marketing for foreign products, or make some mobile apps.

Nguyen Van Dao, Deputy General Director of Samsung Vina, also said made-in-Vietnam mobile phones have been churned out and distributed all over the world since 2009, when a Samsung’s mobile phone factory in Bac Ninh province became operational.

However, a purely Vietnamese mobile phone, designed and made in Vietnam, or designed and outsourced to foreign companies has not come out yet.

“Vietnam still does not have a fundamental for the electronics – telecom industry. We can design some parts of the products or organize small scale production, but we are not experienced enough to design and make a complete product,” Dao said.

A long path ahead

In early October 2012, Viettel Group launched into the market Sumo 2G mobile phone V6206, stating that the product is designed by Viettel and made on its production line. This is a very important step made by Viettel in implementing its strategy to produce telecom equipments.

However, experts say with the product, Vietnam is still at the very beginning of the mobile phone industry development, and that Vietnam still needs to do many more things before it can obtain a phone manufacturing industry.

Tien Phong

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Oct 14, 2012

Vietnam - Chinese counterfeit smart phones dirt cheap, but unsalable

VietNamNet Bridge – The made-in-China counterfeit smart phones, counterfeiting well-known brands of Apple, Nokia and Samsung have been available everywhere at unbelievably low prices.

Counterfeit smart phones sourced from China have been flooding the Vietnamese market. The offers to sell counterfeit products can be found on e-commerce websites, and the ad pieces about the products have been posted on printed newspapers.

The real iPhone 5 has just been available in Vietnam for just several days. But the time is enough for Chinese to create counterfeit iPhone 5s and put on sale on the Vietnamese market. In fact, the ad pieces about surprisingly cheap iPhone 5 appeared on Internet some months ago already.

A real iPhone 5 is selling at over 20 million dong in Vietnam. Meanwhile, one just needs to spend 600,000 dong to obtain a counterfeit iPhone 5, made in China. The counterfeit products can also satisfy users with the over-4-inch screen and the same battery charge portal like iPhone 4S.

Meanwhile, counterfeit HDC Galaxy S3 has the sale price just equal to 1/3 of real product. Especially, the counterfeit version has been advertised as having good configuration and the design exactly similar to that of the Samsung’s blockbuster product

The counterfeit product is also from China. It is called the “twin brother” of Samsung Galaxy S3 with 4-8 inch screen, HD 1280x720pixel, two SIM slots, 2500mAh battery, and Android 4.0 operating system.

The counterfeit A9 – 3G looks like a Samsung Galaxy Note tablet, but in fact, it is sourced from China. The suppliers of the products do not hide the information that the products 100 percent imitate the design of Samsung Galaxy Note.

While a genuine Galaxy Note has been selling at 16 million dong, A9 is dirt cheap, at just 4.4 million dong.

Counterfeit iPhone 4S have also been available on the market. The version is named iPhone 4GS j9, priced at 900,000 dong only. However, the counterfeit product has nothing comparable with genuine iPhone 4S, except the appearance similar with iPhone 4S.

Nokia smart phones--especially Nokia N9, are always the products that Chinese manufacturers want to imitate. One would find it difficult to tell the difference between a genuine and a counterfeit product, because the counterfeit version also has good design. However, a counterfeit product can be bought at just 1.5 million dong, and it would break down just after a short period of use. Meanwhile, N9 has been selling at over 10 million dong on the Vietnamese market.

The N9 products sourced from China uses iPhone UI interface instead of Meego of Nokia’s N9. It has the screen size of 3.8 inch, WQVGA standard resolution, or 240x400 megapixels, while it does not allow users to install new apps and other high grade functions. Especially, while genuine N9 is designed for one simcard only, the counterfeit version provides two simcard slots.

Online hi-tech markets in Vietnam have given warnings against the counterfeit products from China, from tablets, laptops, music players.

Chodientu, for example, has posted the warning “San pham nay la hang Trung Quoc, ban nen can nhac truoc khi mua” (the product is made in China, you should consider thoroughly before buying it).

The administration board of the market has also warned that if the sellers do not strictly follow the regulations on information exposition and updating, Chodientu would close the sellers’ accounts without informing the sellers in advance.

In May 2011, Chodientu decided to shut down Thanhtu Mobile kiosk at the market, because the seller committed to sell genuine products at the price discount of 60 percent, but in fact, these were fake products sourced from China.

Compiled by Thu Uyen

Sep 20, 2012

Vietnam - Ad market: Internet and mobile phone to enter into rivalry with TV

VietNamNet Bridge – TV still dominates the advertisement market. However, the position may change in the near future amid the youth’s changes in their habits of using media.

The market survey conducted by TNS Media Vietnam in the second quarter of 2012 in six socio-economic areas has found out big changes in the consumers’ taste, which would lead to the significant changes in the advertisement market.

4800 households and 4800 people aged from 15 to 54 were polled during the survey.

Consumers changed their taste

TV remains the most popular equipment in every Vietnamese households with 27 percent of households found has having two TV sets or more. Especially, in Mekong River Delta, six percent of households have been found as having three TV sets or more.

TV is also the kind of media that has the highest number of audience in Vietnam with 83 percent of populating watching TV every day. In the eastern area of the south, including HCM City, 63 percent of households use cable TV. The diversification of TV channels has helped attracted more viewers.

On average, a household in Vietnam can watch 20 different TV channels, while the figure is 39 in the western area of the south. Especially, in the region, there are more cable TV channels than popular channels, more foreign cable channels than domestic ones.

Every day, a Vietnamese spends 200-256 minutes watching TVs, while he spends 33-76 to access to Internet. Meanwhile, he only spends 5-28 minutes to read newspaper or journal, 12-44 minutes to listen to radio, and 18-49 minutes to watch video and audio clips.

The residents in the eastern area of the south are leading the country in terms of the time to listen to radio, read newspaper and access to Internet, while Mekong Delta is leading in terms of the time spent on watching TVs and video clips.

The survey has found that Internet has become more popular among people. 1.30 pm – 5 pm is the time called “golden hours,” which attract the highest number of TV watchers. It is also the time when the number of subscribers accessing to Internet is the highest during the day.

The lower costs for watching TV or using the Internet explains why people favor these two kinds of media than others (newspapers, video clips…).

Internet is on the rise in ad market

77 percent of users like watching advertisement pieces on TV because they can both see the images and listen to the sounds, while 35 percent of polled people said they like the ads on Internet.

In the Mekong Delta and the eastern area of the south, printed newspapers are more favored than Internet. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese youth now follows media consumption way. For example, the number of young people accessing to Internet is higher than the average rate during 8-12 am and 1.30-5 pm. More young people read newspapers than people of the other ages.

Truong Si Anh from TNS Media has noted that despite the higher popularity of Internet, TV remains the most effective channel for advertisement.

Foreign business groups have been focusing on posting ad pieces on TV channels. The total advertisement turnover in 2011, not including outdoor billboards, reached 1.2 billion dollars, of which TV ad turnover accounted for 81 percent.

In the first six months of 2012, while the whole ad industry was in big difficulties, TV ads still obtained the satisfactory growth rate of 34 percent. Meanwhile, the ad turnover of newspapers and journals saw a modest increase, and the advertisements on Internet grew by 1.5 percent.

Compiled by Thu Uyen

Nov 24, 2011

Vietnam - Mobile operator earns huge sum with dubious game

More than half million subscribers of VinaPhone have participated in a quiz game during the company's latest promotional campaign by sending five millions SMS messages without clear knowledge of how they will win the game.

This has enabled the telecom service provider to earn a hefty sum of more than 40 billion dong (US$1.92 million) in just five weeks.

The promotional programme, titled "SMS Millionaire," is introduced as a quiz show, in which subscribers will receive SMS messages, each containing a simple question about common knowledge and two possible answers from VinaPhone.

Subscribers are invited to send an SMS with their answer to VinaPhone, with each message costing them 8,000.

With each correct answer, subscribers will receive another SMS, saying they have earned 10 points and are highly encouraged to continue the game with another simple question.

The process will go on, with the inviting words becoming more and more encouraging and appealing as subscribers answer more questions.

The final prize for the quiz game is 30 million dong, and after each correct answer, subscribers will receive messages such as "You have the chance to win 30 million dong in the next few hours, please answer the next question..."; "Awesome answer! The prize will be surely in your hand tonight!"; "Incredible! 30 million dong is just an inch ahead you."

Lured by such appealing words, many subscribers have repeatedly sent SMS to answer the questions, believing that the more points they earn, the greater the chance they have of grabbing the prize.

However, this is in fact a false belief, with VinaPhone providing unclear information on how to win the game.

Top scorer is not winner

One subscriber in Tien Giang said he had been playing the quiz for a week, earning as many as 865,990 points, but there is no sign of an ending point for the game.

In fact, it is not those who earn the highest scores who will bring home the whopping prize, but those who are chosen by the God of Luck, with VinaPhone choosing the winner of the week by lottery drawing.

A VinaPhone spokesperson admitted to Tuoi Tre that there is no maximum score in the game and subscribers can send as many SMS as their mobile phone accounts can afford.

Under this rule, the "SMS Millionaire" programme has attracted 646,983 participants, who have sent 5.02 million messages worth VND40.2 billion, which will earn VinaPhone a huge profit since the total prize for the programme is only 2.7 billion dong.

Nguyen Hoang Hai, sales manager of VinaPhone's Service Centre, admitted that VinaPhone had sent SMS messages to subscribers to invite them to join the game.

Hai said VinaPhone would initially send three messages to subscribers. If they refused to join, the system would stop sending invitation messages.

But for those who accepted the invitation, Hai said, VinaPhone would send SMS containing questions, hinting that subscribers would have a greater chance to win if they could accumulate more points.

But, since the winner will be chosen by lottery drawing, an accumulation of a large number of points seems to be meaningless.

Some subscribers who have joined the game complain that VinaPhone's SMS messages persuading them to continue answering the questions look just like those enticing them to gamble to win 30 million dong.

Commenting on this, a representative of VinaPhone said the promotional programme is aimed at providing common knowledge to subscribers.

However, VinaPhone registered with the Trade Promotion Agency to launch the programme as a "lottery drawing game," with no clauses regarding the quiz show as "providing common knowledge," as VinaPhone claimed.

Tuoi Tre

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