Vietnam estimates it imported 1.6 million computers of all kinds in 2009, up 35% from the previous year, said Intel Vietnam’s Marketing Director Pham An Duong.
The Southeast Asian country bought laptops VND6.3 trillion ($340.9 million), accounting for 34% of total computers sold in the year, up 28% against 2008, Duong estimated. Retailers said 14-inch laptops were best-sellers thanks to their reasonable prices.
Despite the improvement in speeds, screens and prices, sales of netbooks last year remained modest as the product remained unpopular with local consumers.
The prices of computer fell 10% in 2009, meaning PCs and laptops cost about $350 and $620 per unit on average, respectively.
The domestic demand for high-speed microprocessors kept rising. Core microprocessors accounted for 29% of Intel’s total microprocessors sold last year. Dung expects Intel’s Core would increase its market share to 40% in 2010 thanks to the recent introduction of Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 products.
Intel now holds about 92% of the total microprocessor market share in Vietnam, and AMD owns the remainder, Duong said.
Vietnamese customers also tended to pay more for their PCs with LCD screens. GfK Vietnam’s statistics showed that the nation imported nearly 716,000 LCD screens for PCs worth VND2.4 trillion ($130 million) in the first 11 months of 2009.
Ho Chi Minh City was the largest market for LCD screen last year, accounting for 45% of the country’s total sales, followed by Hanoi with 35%.
Thieu Phuong Nam, business director of Intel Vietnam and Indochina, forecast that Vietnam’s computer market in 2010 would increase 20%-25% over last year. (Vietnamnet)
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