Vietnam Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 5.8 million mobile phones were shipped to Vietnam in the second quarter of 2013. Aggressive shipments of low-cost smartphones caused feature phone shipments to contract 25.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).

1. Windows Phone Up-and-Coming Challenger to Android for Vietnam Smartphone Market
03 Sep 2013
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, September 3, 2013-- According to IDC’s Vietnam Quarterly Mobile Phone
Tracker, 5.8 million mobile phones were shipped to Vietnam in the second quarter of 2013. Aggressive
shipments of low-cost smartphones caused feature phone shipments to contract 25.8% quarter-on-quarter
(QoQ).
As a result, smartphone shipments accounted for 32.7% of total mobile phone shipments in Q2 2013, a
noticeable increase from only 14.7% in Q2 2012.
While a number of flagship smartphone models introduced last quarter gave the Vietnam smartphone
market a small boost, it was primarily mass shipments of budget smartphones that made the biggest
contribution.
“Homegrown brands have proved a key factor to sparking demand for smartphones in both urban and
rural areas of Vietnam, especially for sub-US$100 handsets,” says Võ Lê Tâm Thanh, Senior Market
Analyst, Mobile Devices at IDC Vietnam.

2. "We expect these local vendors to continue to do very well outside of tier 1 cities, but they will certainly
run into difficulties competing with strong international brands like Nokia and Samsung which are
currently also focused on the entry-level smartphone market," he adds.
Windows Phone 8 made strong gains in the Vietnamese smartphone market, by posting a growth rate in
Q2 2013 of 119% compared to the previous quarter. While this growth comes off a small base compared
to Android, Windows Phone has risen from 6% OS share in Q2 2012 to 15% OS share in Q2 2013,
largely from the local strength of the Nokia brand but also Microsoft’s investment in the local developer
community.
Daniel Pang, ASEAN Research Manager for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific comments, "The strong
uptake of Nokia’s Lumia 520 has really helped Windows Phone 8 to drive Vietnam’s smartphone market.
If Nokia can maintain a strong emerging market portfolio, it may be able to continue to differentiate itself
from the mass of low-cost vendors.”
(Source : IDC data)