Vietnam demand for media tablets surges for 4th consecutive year: GfK
Vietnam demand for media tablets surges for 4th consecutive year: GfK
Vietnam posted a year-on-year increase in demand for media tablets for the fourth straight time in 2015, but sales value did not go up despite the bigger volume, market research company GfK said in a recent report.
Media tablets are devices that are based on a touchscreen display of at least five inches with an on-screen keyboard. The device marked its official launch in Vietnam in 2011, according to GfK.
Nearly 1.5 million units of such gadget were sold in Vietnam in 2015, representing a 17 percent growth or over 201,000 units more in sales when compared to 2014, GfK said on Thursday, citing findings from its latest survey.
It was the fourth successive year since 2011 when the increasing volume of media tablets continued to fly off the shelves in Vietnam, according to the report.
However, 2015 also marked the first time the Vietnamese media tablets shrank in total market value. The market generated US$324.5 million in sales in 2015, 13 percent lower than the previous year.
“Media tablets are still very much in demand, although its growth momentum has slowed down considerably compared to the early years when it was first introduced,” said Van Tran Khoa, managing director for GfK in Vietnam.
“The increasingly saturated market has reduced the growth rate significantly from exponential triple-digit range in the past three years to the still healthy double-digit level in 2015.”
GfK point of sales tracking reveals a consistent downward price trend of media tablets over the years—from the much higher $675 average price during the initial period when tablets were first introduced locally, to the current level of around $239.
Over the past year, price of tablets fell by 25 percent year-on-year from $321 in 2014, according to GfK.
With the availability of more inexpensive tablets, market share of the low-end tier of $200 and below segment surged by 16 percent to 55 percent.
Corresponding with the declining pattern of media tablet prices is the steady rise in number of players in the market, the report underlines.
In 2015 there was six times more media tablet brands catering to the local market, as opposed to just ten in the first year of its launch. The latest GfK report revealed 63 brands and 396 models of media tablets available in the market at the end of last year.
Another notable trend is the continued penetration of the Android market in Vietnam, according to GfK.
Last year, more than four in every five, or 82 percent, tablets purchased were based on this operating system—up from 73 percent a year before. This translates to local consumers spending over $201 million on Android media tablets.
“We expect Vietnam’s media tablets market to continue its positive performance in the near future, although at a diminishing growth rate of less than double digit,” Van concluded.
