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No more iPhone-mania as latest devices get cold reception in Vietnam         

No more iPhone-mania as latest devices get cold reception in Vietnam         

Saturday, September 22, 2018, 11:37 GMT+7

While many cash-rich Vietnamese couldn’t wait to become first owners of the latest iPhones whenever Apple unveiled new versions of its flagship handset despite their hefty prices, it might not be the case for this year’s release of the snappily named iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.

Apple Inc introduced its largest-ever iPhone on September 12 in an attempt to get customers to upgrade to more expensive devices in the face of stagnant global demand for smartphones.

The new iPhone XS, pronounced “ten S,” has a 5.8-inch (14.7-cm) screen, and will be sold at a starting price of US$999. The XS Max, the largest iPhone to date and one of the biggest on the market, has a 6.5-inch (16.5-cm) screen, and will start selling at $1,099.

As in previous releases of the new iPhones, Vietnam is not one of the first countries to get a bite.

Many Vietnamese ‘opportunists’ thus joined the Apple hardcore fans’ insanely long queues in Singapore -- the first country in Southeast Asia to release the new iPhones – to buy as many the devices as they could for resale at much higher costs than retail prices in Vietnam.

However, what these lured-by-profit iPhone traders could not expect is that iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max have received anything but a lukewarm welcome upon their arrival in Vietnam, only hours after leaving the Singapore Apple Store.

A sponsored Facebook post advertising sale of iPhone XS Max in Vietnam.
A sponsored Facebook post advertising sale of iPhone XS Max in Vietnam is seen in this screenshot. Photo: Tuoi Tre News

As the morning of Friday creeped in, the ‘hand-carried’ iPhone XS Max 512GB was asked for up to VND79 million, or $3,397, more than double the price Apple listed and the most shocking asking price for an iPhone to date by Vietnamese resellers.

That might be the reason why the VND79 million iPhone, still remains on shelves waiting for buyers as Friday morning passed by. In previous years, the costly iPhones were well ‘sold out’ before the cash-rich Vietnamese buyers actually saw them.

Recognizing the situation, some stores in Ho Chi Minh City lowered the price of the iPhone XS Max 512GB to VND68 million ($2,924) and were able to sell it successfully.

But not all resellers were that lucky; some had to let the iPhone XS Max’s prices fall to the range of about VND50 million ($2,150) later the same day.

This means the XS Max 512GB iPhone saw its price blown off by nearly one-third after only a few hours arriving to Vietnam from Singapore.

Why it flops?

Some Vietnamese tech business experts commented that the iPhone XS and XS Max this year are not really hot deals as both of them bear almost the same design of the iPhone X, released just last year.

“So it will not reach the heat like what iPhone X created,” an expert remarked.

In addition, the lower-cost 6.1-inch (15.5 cm) aluminum iPhone XR, which was also introduced at Apple’s launching event at a starting price at $749, is also a cause of iPhone XS and XS Max’s decreased consumption.

“The device is sold at more affordable price while its hardware is comparable to the XS and XS Max,” one insider explained.

A demonstration of the newly released Apple products is seen following the product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters
A demonstration of the newly released Apple products is seen following the product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Another reason why the iPhone XS and XS Max are not so chased after in Vietnam now is that users are waiting for the duo’s dual-sim versions – the useful feature allowing two different phone numbers and two different carriers on the same phone that Vietnamese users have long waited Apple to offer – to be shipped from Hong Kong for the next short while.

The new iPhones on sale in Singapore support one conventional SIM plus an e-SIM, which remains unsupported by all Vietnamese mobile carriers.

And the price of the 2018 iPhones brought to Vietnam from overseas is expected to dance until the flagship devices are put on shelves, somewhere between late October and early November, according to sources with knowledge on the matter.

Bao Anh / Tuoi Tre News

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