With support of The Gioi Di Dong, the largest mobile phone distribution chain in Vietnam, Nokia is expected to make things happen again in Vietnam.
At a ceremony launching Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 6 in Hanoi on April 18, The Gioi Di Dong pledged to sell 500,000 Nokia smartphone products in 2018. The retailer has committed to sell 41,600 smartphones for HMD Global.
The models have manufacturer’s suggested retail prices of at least VND5.99 million.
Nokia will list its name among the top four smartphone brands in Vietnam and will have opportunities to compete with Apple for the third position in the list of best sellers.
If the sales by The Gioi Di Dong account for 65 percent of total smartphones Nokia sells in the market, about 64,000 Nokia products would be sold each month. The figure could be even higher if The Gioi Di Dong can fulfill its commitment.
A report from GfK, a market analysis firm, showed that in February 2018, Nokia was the fourth to Samsung, Oppo and Apple in the sales of smartphones in Vietnam with 50,313 products sold. The fifth position belonged to Vivo with 48,795 products sold.
However, in January 2018, also according to GfK, Nokia, with 46,604 products sold, Nokia was in a lower position than Vivo which sold 54,739 products.
Vivo and Nokia have been fighting for the fourth position in recent months. The positions changed regularly depending on the manufacturers’ launch of new models and the retailers’ sales promotion programs.
Though the fourth position is still uncertain for Nokia, analysts believe that the brand, which is among the world’s top 5, has greater advantages than Vivo.
The biggest advantage is that Nokia products were favored in Vietnam, while Vivo is a completely new brand.
The Gioi Di Dong’s chair Nguyen Duc Tai also commented that Nokia is a familiar name to the majority of Vietnamese. The second big advantage is that Nokia has a big partner in charge of distributing its products.
Some analysts think that Nokia may even be a threat to Apple, which has been in the third position over many years.
In 2017, Apple’s products held 9 percent of Vietnam’s smartphone market share with 122,000 products sold each month, while the total number of smartphones sold in Vietnam was 13.5 million.
Apple’s average number of sold products doubles that of Nokia’s.
US$1=VND22,000
By: Chi Mai, Source: VietNamNet
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