High-end smartphone market expected to grow

Market research company GfK has reported that it expects the most expensive smartphones to account for an increasingly large share of the market in Vietnam next year at about 12%, compared to just 5% in 2019.

This rate is higher than Indonesia (3%), the Philippines (6%), and India (4%), but lower than Thailand (13%), China (21%), Singapore (42%), and New Zealand (44%).

The forecast comes even amid an overall shrinking market due to economic concerns and tightened spending among Vietnamese consumers.

The Vietnamese smartphone market decreased by 23% on-year, but its high-end smartphone segment, devices worth at least $800, experienced significant growth, according to GfK.

According to experts, the high-end cell phone segment in Vietnam still has room for development.

"Macroeconomic fluctuations do not have much impact on high-end customer groups. While expensive products are still being launched regularly, sales of low-cost lines are being affected due to users tightening their spending," Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, in charge of phone and electronics industry at GfK Vietnam, said.

The difference in the Vietnamese market is that the sales of vertically foldable smartphones is always higher than horizontally foldable phones, showing that users tend to prefer fashionable, compact devices.

Asia’s total cell phone market reached US$100 billion in the first half of this year, with $2 billion coming from Vietnam, reported GfK.