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Vietnamese phones a Chinese puzzle
Consumers in Vietnam have the choice of many Vietnamese brands of mobile phones. Most are cheap with lots of popular entertainment functions but very few are actually made in Vietnam.
Vietnamese brands, such as Mobell, Q-Mobile, ConnSpeed, Bavapen, F-Mobile and MobiStar, retail at much cheaper prices than the big-name international brands, such as Nokia and Motorola.
Rather than manufacture or even assemble mobile phones, most Vietnamese companies import ready-made phones from China, making only minor cosmetic changes before sale.
The foreign-made Vietnamese-branded phones include the ConnSpeed model, released by A My Company in 2007. ConnSpeed phones, which retail for VND1 million to VND3 million (US$56-$168), have functions such as a music player, camera, Bluetooth connectivity and dual SIM card capability.
P&T Mobile’s MobiStar and FPT’s F-Mobile handsets, both released in the past two months, target low-income consumers with prices below VND2 million ($112).
“We target low-income consumers such as students, factory workers, office workers and people who use the F-Mobile as their second cell phone,” said F-Mobile Brand Business Manager Le Van Su.
Most Vietnamese-branded mobile phone handsets are made in China, according to Vien Thong A Company Deputy Director Le Quang Vu.
One businessman said setting up a mobile phone production line was expensive, especially when components were available from China at very low prices.
But even assembling mobile phones in Vietnam was not cost-effective because the import tax on components is higher than the import tax on fully-assembled mobile phones, said the businessman, who asked not to be identified.
ConnSpeed handsets are manufactured in China to the design specified by A My Company. The phones are programmed so the display is in Vietnamese.
The Chinese origin of most Vietnamese brands of mobile phones explains the similarities in function, design and quality of some of the handsets.
In the past, several Vietnamese companies have tried to produce made-in-Vietnam cell phones but all the projects failed.
In 2004, the Hue–Danang Service Center (HDC) and its Singaporean partner Zentek Technology Singapore Pte. announced plans to invest $25 million in a cell phone plant in the central city of Danang.
The plant was to produce low-cost phones, multimedia phones and smartphones in late 2005 using equipment and components from Germany.
However, the Danang City People’s Committee revoked the project’s investment license in May 2007 because work was progressing too slowly.
Also in 2005, the Post Equipment Joint Stock Company (Postef), an affiliate of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), announced a hand phone project.
Postef said it would manufacture low-cost cell phones, priced at less than $20, with the first batch to be sold in 2006. However, the project has made little or no progress over the past three years.
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