VietNamNet Bridge – The digital product market did not obtain the expected high growth rate in 2011, but the sales of mobile phones and laptops – the two key categories of digital products – still could thrive with the growth rate of 20 percent. How about 2012?

Laptops: prosperity will come despite difficulties

Since 2011, the sales of laptops have far exceeded the sales of desktops. In 2010, only 770,000 laptops were sold on the market, while the number of desktops sold reached one million. However, things got quite different in 2011: the number of sold laptops jumped to 1.1 million, while the number of desktops sold reduced to 950,000.

IDC’s market analysts have predicted that about 1.25 million laptops would be sold in 2012, while the volume of desktops to be sold may decrease to 900,000.

According to Doan Hong Viet, Director of DigiWorld, the computer importer, a laptop is priced at 12 million dong on average in 2012, a 500,000 dong decrease from the average price in 2011.

“In the current economic difficulties, the growth rate of the laptop market is still high enough for distributors and retailers to “live well.”

“However, the profits from the category of products would be low, because consumers have shifted to use low cost models,” Viet said.

An expert from Intel Vietnam has also said that though the economic difficulties would still exist in 2012, laptops would still be salable. It is because the prices of laptops have been decreasing, while the average income of Vietnamese people has been increasing, which makes it affordable for many people to buy laptops.

With the current income, a normal worker can buy a low cost laptop after 28 weeks of working. Meanwhile, 10 years ago, he could buy a laptop only after 107 weeks of working.

Intel has predicted that 40 percent of the computers to be sold in 2012 worldwide would be Ultrabook series. However, Vietnamese retailers think that the models are still a little too expensive for Vietnamese people (the cheapest one is priced at 19 million dong). Therefore, they think that the most popular models in Vietnam would be the ones priced at less than 10 million dong, that fit the students and officers with low income.

A retailer, who asks to be anonymous, said that the sale of low cost computers can only bring low profits. He can make a profit of 100,000 dong per product. However, he still has to distribute the products to maintain good relations with importers and satisfy the customers’ demand.

“I think that Ultrabook series would only account for several percent in market share in Vietnam in 2012,” he said.

Smart phone revenue would increase sharply

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2011, Vietnam imported nearly 20 million mobile phones of different kinds. However, Saigon tiep thi has quoted its sources as saying that only 15-16 million products were consumed on the domestic market, while the remaining has been exported to Laos and Cambodia or has been left unsold.

Market survey firms have estimated that about 18 million products would be sold in 2012, a 20 percent increase in comparison with 2011.

Dinh Anh Huan, Business Director of The Gioi Di Dong, thinks that the market share of low cost products (less than 2 million dong) would reduce to 50 percent in 2012, a decrease of 10 percent.

Analysts have predicted that the revenue of smart phones may hit 50 percent of the total revenue of the category of products, while the volume may be equal to 15-18 percent.

However, distributors have been warned that 2012 would be a difficult year. The purchasing power is still weak in the first months of 2012. A retailer has revealed that the profit is just 2-3 percent. It is expected that some domestic manufacturers would go bankrupted in 2012 because of the accumulative losses.

Source: SGTT