Soaring demand delays iPhone 13 delivery in Vietnam

"We do not currently have the iPhone 13 Pro Max model you have ordered and you might have to wait until next month at the earliest," a salesperson with a smartphone distribution chain in Vietnam told Thuy Linh, who is planning a smartphone upgrade.

Linh, an English teacher in Hanoi, has tried several stores in Hanoi but the 128-gigabyte option is either out of stock or does not have the color she wants.

The model she desires is available in the unofficial market, but prices are around 20 percent higher, the 28-year-old teacher said.

Duc Anh, who works for a marketing company in HCMC, is also finding it difficult to get his hands on the latest Apple smartphones. Several stores have informed him that it would take weeks until the next delivery.

"Gold and Sierra Blue models are not available in most of the shops I’ve contacted. Some have pushed up prices so I am waiting for the market to cool down."

The most expensive iPhone 13 models, Pro and Pro Max, are in short supply in Vietnam as the ongoing global chip shortage hampers Apple’s production.

Apple is expected to cut its iPhone 13 production by as many as 10 million units this year due to the global chip shortage, Bloomberg reports.

Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted last week that chip shortage and supply chain problems related to Covid-19 have cut sales by $6 billion in the last fiscal quarter.

But another reason for the delay in delivery in Vietnam is the high demand, distributors say.

The supply of iPhone 13 in Vietnam only meets half of customers’ orders, according to estimates by CellphoneS. The company has only received 20 percent of the total it has ordered from Apple.

"Demand has risen by 50 percent compared to the same period last year, and it does not seem to have been affected by the pandemic," a media representative for the company told VnExpress International.

CellphoneS estimates iPhone 13 sales to rise 50-60 percent over that of iPhone 12 in the same period last year.

FPT Shop, with over 700 outlets nationwide, saw sales of iPhone 13 in the launching week double that of iPhone 12 last year, and the same percentage is likely to be maintained throughout the last quarter, a representative said.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max, the biggest and most expensive of the four new models, accounted for 72 percent of iPhone 13 sales in October, the company said.

Sierra Blue and Gold are the most sought-after colors for the Pro Max and the Pro models at FPT Shop, which explains the shortage, industry insiders say.

They also say that the large number of incentives that Apple is offering users this year is motivating more buyers to go to authorized stores instead of buying them from stores who pick up the devices in other countries and sell them in Vietnam.

Apple accounted for around 7 percent of the smartphone market share in Vietnam in the second quarter, ranking fifth behind Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, according to Counterpoint Research.