IPhone 11 sell date in Vietnam still unknown

Apple on September 20 began selling iPhone 11 in many countries, but not Vietnam. Vietnamese who want to have iPhone 11 soon have to fly to Singapore to buy products from shops there and bring them to Vietnam.

The first iPhone 11s available in Vietnam are not products reserved for the Vietnamese market, but are from Singapore, Hong Kong, the US, Australia and China.

Authorized resellers in Vietnam don’t have iPhone 11s for sale, but began taking orders for iPhone 11 in an unofficial way, right after the iPhone 11 launching ceremony on September 11.

As of September 20, thegioididong.com and FPT Shop, the largest distribution chains, had 3,000 orders each.

Commenting about the number of orders in Vietnam, an analyst said this was nothing compared with China. JD.com alone has received 500,000 orders so far. He said the number of orders is small compared with the Vietnamese population of 100 million.

A report from GfK shows that officially distributed iPhones still account for a modest market share in Vietnam this year, about 6 percent. The products had 6.3 percent of market share in July 2019, ranking fourth, after Samsung, Oppo and Realme.

However, if considering only the high-end market segment (the smartphones with the prices of over VND15 million), Apple held 66 percent of market share, twice as much as Samsung’s (32 percent).

According to GfK, in June 2019, only 58,000 devices of the high-end market segment were sold, a significant decrease compared with 74,000 products in May.

With modest sales, it is difficult for Vietnam to be added to the list of the first markets where Apple will sell its products. Officially distributed iPhones bear stiff competition from iPhones imported to Vietnam through unofficial channels that have more competitive prices.

A report released by FPT Retail in late 2017 showed that about $900 million worth of iPhone products were sold in Vietnam, while officially distributed products had value of $550 million only.

As such, Vietnam is listed among the third group of markets in Apple’s sale system and it is still not an important market for Apple. Analysts also don’t think Apple willset up Apple Store in Vietnam soon.