“Communist Vietnam is suddenly Apple Inc’s hottest market after sales there tripled in its fiscal first half, a growth rate five times faster than in India where it is spending heavily in a battle for market share,” Nguyen Phuong Linh reports for Reuters. “Vietnam has barely received a mention from Apple executives in their regular briefings for financial analysts. But in a quarterly conference call on Wednesday, 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,” Linh reports. “‘This cost more than two months worth of my salary,’ said officer worker Pham My Linh, 23, moments after agreeing a payment plan for an iPhone 5. ‘But I need it, to feel more confident when hanging out with friends and colleagues.'”
“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,” Linh reports. “Apple isn’t the only beneficiary of its own brand appeal. Fake iPhones with a near-flawless appearance are on sale for just 2 million dong ($95). ‘There are a lot of people out there who can’t afford an iPhone but still want to look rich, which is why shops like mine can do well,’ said shop owner Nguyen Duc Hai, 33.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]
Someone used the “C” word… uh-oh… Things gonna get political in here real quick.
Is a billion Dong a Dongle?
Zzzzzzzz, Snorrrrrrrrr, Zleep bloggingzzzzz, Snorrrrr!!!!!
No, its more like a mega dong. 🙂
Your comment finally crossed the sleep reality barrier!
Ha! ha! haaaa!!!!!
Zzzzzz, Snorrrrr Zleep laughingzzzzz Snorrrrr!!!!
Actually a Giga Dong. I Mega Dong is a million Dong 😉
Gee, a communist economy is sluggish and corrupt. What a massive surprise. Same goes for economies that are being pushed leftwards by clueless community organizers. Whodathunkit?
Free markets, dumbasses.
First 2014, Then 2016.
It’s Rand Paul time. Gonna switch from Independent to Republican so I can vote for Rand in my state’s 2016 primary.
I’ll save you the nuance, but in high school I learned that your comment is a “logical fallacy.”
Absolutely corrected, Vietnamese is very much for higher social status, looking up appearance is very important to them. They like to show off iPhones and iPads to their friends and relative. It is strange but it is 101% true.
Any businessman who wants to “keep up” and show he is in with the ability to use technology wants the best and Asia has always been attuned to the best as a status symbol.
Đừng quên, Tháp Hà Nội là một câu đố rất nổi tiếng
Oooo! hannajs!! Very saucy of you to expose yourself like this!!
Even in my dreams, you haven’t exposed yourself like this!!!
Zzzzzzz Snorrrrrrr Smiling as I zleep blogzzzzzz, Snorrrrr!!!
Uh…
This got weird.
Thanks for reminding me, Hanna,
As i child i lived with a vietnamese boy who was injured in the war, (my father was a member of Physicians for Social Responsability) and know all too well the puzzle that we faced and ignored, to our peril.
Because Apple is communist organization!!!
Indeed, the Vietnamese like things American — McDonalds, Macs and Nike shoes, to name a few. If only we could get the government to embrace American free speech, justice and human rights. You can see more of today’s Vietnam in my photography book, Vietnam40YearsLater(dot)com.