Samsung Electronics is losing its dominance in the sharply-growing Vietnamese cell phone market owing to attacks from the low priced competitors.
According to market researcher IDC on March 15, 28.7 million cell phones were sold in Vietnam last year, up 13 percent from the previous year.
Among them, smartphone sales rose sharply by 57 percent with 11.6 million units, accounting for 40 percent of total cell phone sales. The sales of smartphones this year is expected to exceed 50 percent, beating feature phones.
The share of Samsung Electronics in the smartphone market decreased to 26 percent in 2014 from 38 percent in 2013 and 54 percent in 2012.
However, the market share of Microsoft (MS) increased to 24 percent in 2014 from 16 percent in 2013. MS, which obtained Nokia's cell phone business last April, has been strengthening the marketing activities of its low-end products in Vietnam.
Chinese smartphone company Oppo increased the market share to eight percent from one percent during the same period. Huawei is planning to target the Vietnamese market by leading low priced phones this year in earnest.
Although the Zenfone smartphone of Taiwanese company Asus was scarcely seen in Vietnam in 2013, it occupied a 6 percent market share last year.
According to IDC, about 60 percent of the smartphones in distribution in Vietnam cost less than US$150 (170,000 won), and the low-priced phones are driving the fast growth of smartphones there.