Samsung continues to lead Vietnam’s smartphone market: Counterpoint

According to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, Samsung continues to lead Vietnam's smartphone market with a market share of 43 percent, while Nokia and iTel enter top five rankings in Vietnam within a year of launch.

The report said that the smartphone shipments grew 12 percent sequentially but remained flat annually in Q3 2017, and the overall handset market (including feature phones) increased by 17 percent year on year.

Commenting on the findings, Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research said, "Vietnam is one of the key markets for handset brands in the South-East Asia region. Over 30 smartphone players are competing in a rapidly changing competitive landscape. The third quarter saw some dramatic shifts and the expansion of new players in the country. Nokia HMD and iTel, which entered Vietnam at the beginning of the year, have quickly escalated to the second and fifth positions in the overall handset rankings and fourth and fifth in the smartphone segment. These brands captured the share from local brands, whose collective share fell to single digits (8 percent) for the first time ever."

Oppo is the second largest smartphone brand in the country, capturing 22 percent of the market. Almost 60 percent of its sales were driven by its bestselling mid-segment model A37 and brands like Vivo are scaling up fast as they increase their portfolio and distribution presence, Counterpoint added.

Shobhit Srivastava, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research said, "Vietnam's smartphone market is driven by the fast-growing $100-$150 price segment which is contributing to almost third of the shipments. Apart from this the premium smartphone segment ($400) continues to do well in Vietnam, mainly driven by Samsung and Apple. The success of the premium segment is due to a growing trend of paying for flagship devices on installment schemes at zero interest. Samsung led the premium segment in Q3 2017 with 43 percent market share followed closely by Apple with 41 percent market share."

Vietnam is one of the best-performing countries in the SEA region for Apple. It is scaling both its offline and online presence in the country where it currently has 15 Apple authorized stores. However, gray market sales of iPhones continue to be a big challenge for the company to tackle.