F-Mobile: Low-priced mobile phones integrated with many value-added services
Cheap mobile phones are selling well in Vietnamese market. FPT Mobile is going to introduce a cheap product with the brand F-Mobile.
•
01/06/2009
FPT Mobile will officially introduce to the market 03 products - B230, B660, B890 - during the first week of this June. These products share the same brand F-Mobile, with the price of under 02 million VNDs. Specifically, the scheduled retail price of B230 is 890,000 VNDs, B660 – 1,290,000 VNDs and B890 – 1,890,000 VNDs.
As planned, in the following months, FPT Mobile will continue to introduce many other products and extend its cooperation with manufacturers. Mr. Le Hoang Hai, Vice CEO of FPT Mobile said: “As anticipated, from August 2009 onwards, the brand F-Mobile will introduce 20 – 30 products at the same time to provide consumers with more choices.”
In reality, Vietnamese mobile phone market is strongly directing towards the low-end segment. According to statistics, the prices of 70% of mobile phones in Vietnam are under 100 USDs, 80 USDs/mobile phone on average.
Together with famous brands, many other mobile phone brands originating from China in the low-end segment have been flooding Vietnamese market for the past year. As assessed by specialists, the market share of low-priced mobile phone producers is increasing, narrowing the gap with and advancing towards the market share of traditional mobile phone producers.
Among these cheap product lines, some companies acting both as distributors and warranty providers are An Binh with Q-Mobile; GMS with Welcome; Hung Loi with Malata; or Mobell, CayOn are being distributed by Vu Hoang Hai Co.,Ltd.; Bavaben distributed by Thanh Cong mobile,…
According to the latest statistics announced by many distributors in April 2009, the number of the above product lines sold in Vietnamese market was rather high: Q – Mobile: 70,000 mobile phones/month; Malata: 25,000 – 30,000 mobile phones/month; Mobell: 15,000 – 25,000 mobile phones/month; …
In accordance with the statistics of Top 10 best-sold mobile phones in 2008 by the retail supermarket chain Thegioididong (MobileWorld)– the unit with the biggest mobile phone market share in Vietnam, the prices of all the 10 products are lower than 2 million VNDs.
With many present economic difficulties, a focus on low-priced mobile phone lines still seems to be a safe way for both mobile phone producers and distributors in the domestic market, when the prospect of a economic recovery in 2009 is not clear.
About the new business direction, Mr. Le Hoang Hai said: “Always seeking new business directions to increase turnovers and profits, FPT Mobile believes this is the suitable time to develop in this direction when other market factors are favourable.”
FPT Mobile hasn’t revealed the number of imported mobile phones in this period and this year’s anticipated turnover. However, as planned, products with the brand F-Mobile are anticipated to occupy 10% of Vietnamese market share with the sold number of over 150,000 mobile phones in December 2009.
“In terms of features in comparison with most low-end products in the market, it is difficult to tell the difference of F-Mobile products. However, F-Mobile will make use of current advantages to create its own distinction”, said Mr. Le Hoang Hai.
Specifically, FPT Mobile will strictly monitor the quality, the products will be warranted within 13 months (instead of 12 months at most like other brands), and it commits to repair broken mobile phones within 3 working days, exchange a new or equal-value one if a mobile phone breaks down with the same error for 3 times.
FPT Mobile is also showing its wish to introduce many added-value services into mobile phones, fully making use of the strong points of other units of FPT. In the short term, F-Mobile products will integrate and provide consumers with applications for mobile phones, such as ViTalk, Vimap, Vihuni, English-Vietnamese Dictionary… for free.
In the long term, FPT Mobile is negotiating with other units in FPT Corporation to cooperate with FPT Software in the field of developing basic services, such as integrating mobile banking of TienPhongBank, mobile security of FPT Securities... into F-Mobile’s mobile phones. As anticipated, these co-operations will be deployed soon.
The low-end segment is the one FPT Mobile will aim at in the first step to establish a trade name for F-Mobile telephones in Vietnamese market. As scheduled, at the beginning of 2010, after creating the image of the brand F-Mobile in the market, FPT Mobile will gradually direct to mid-end and high-end products.
