The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World - MWG), which has had an ambitious plan to enter all retail market segments, from luxury to common products, has unexpectedly closed hundreds of stores.

While smartphones sold poorly in February and March because of Covid-19, the sales of laptops were very satisfactory.

The mobile phone market is getting saturated and phone distributors must seek a new driving force for growth from other sectors.

The digital sector is expected to contribute 30% to Vietnam's economy by 2030.

iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max have seen prices decrease by VND500,000 and VND1 million, respectively. The sharpest price reduction, VND1.5 million, has been reported for iPhone 11 Pro.

Opening laptop centers is one of the plans implemented by mobile phone retailers to restructure their business as their core field no longer brings satisfactory profit.

Mobile phone sales in the Vietnamese market decreased in the last three months, which has been anticipated.

Locked iPhone 11 Pro Max 64 GB is offered at VND21.9 million, half of the price of international version.

Five Vietnamese e-commerce platforms were named among ten most visited sites in Southeast Asia in the first half of this year.

iPhone XR and iPhone 8 were the two Apple’s bestsellers in the US in the second quarter. However, they have not caught the attention of Vietnamese iPhone users.

Seeing signs of young Asians migrating to Vietnam to work in the technology sector, NextTech president Nguyen Hoa Binh said the so called trend of ‘made-in-Vietnam technology products made by South Korea or China’ is very likely to happen in Vietnam.

While seeking new growth, many big companies, from The Gioi Di Dong (phone distributor) and Petrolimex (petroleum distributor) to Son Kim Retail are targeting the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sector.

The Gioi So (Digiworld), the mobile phone retail chain, is seeking to distribute office equipment, while FPT Shop is trying online sale models and The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) is focusing on its department stores.

Previous-generation iPhone models have seen prices dropping dramatically over the last two months. A used iPhone 7 32 GB is selling at VND4.5 million, or approximately $200.

The Gioi Di Dong, the largest mobile phone distribution chain, collects nearly VND1 trillion from selling kitchenware, while Vietjet, the second largest in aviation market share, is growing rapidly from selling rice and sandwiches.

In Vietnam, Nhat Cuong and other chains belong to the second-tier group of distributors which sell both official and unofficial imported products, the two segments in the Vietnamese distribution market.

Many enterprises have set lower profit targets for 2019, which indicates that the period of peak profits is over. This is expected to have an adverse impact on the stock market and prices of listed companies’ shares.

VietNamNet Bridge - Observers said iPhone XR appears to have the same problem as iPhone 5C which had a high price but few outstanding features.

Experts have voiced concern over the move of refusing domestically made goods by some Vietnamese retail chains, saying that if domestic retailers and manufacturers cannot cooperate, local goods will lose their positions in the home market.