Sales of the newly released iPhone model surpassed the VND1-trillion (US$42 million) mark for a second year in a row, despite the economic downturn.
The iPhone 15 came to Vietnam on Sept. 29, the first time the country was included in Apple’s second round of sales a week after starting in markets like the U.S., India, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand.
Most Vietnamese retailers said sales were “much better than expected” in what has been a gloomy year for the phone market.
The Gioi Di Dong sold more than 15,000 for worth VND500 billion, accounting for nearly 50% of the market.
Other retailers such as FPT Shop, CellPhoneS, ShopDunk, and Hoang Ha Mobile reported sales of 2,000-7,000 each.
In all, according to statistics from an importer, on Sept. 29 alone, 35,000 iPhone 15s worth more than VND1 trillion were delivered to customers. The phones were sold out within hours.
FPT Shop did not disclose revenues for the full day, but merely said over 5,000 devices worth VND150 billion were delivered just after midnight.
CellphoneS delivered 1,500 phones in the first two hours.
The most popular variant, also the most expensive, has been the Pro Max, which accounted for 50-70% of sales.
But their sales were 10-20% from last year due to the smaller supply but also because consumers have started to pay more attention to the two regular versions with their eye-catching colors and nearly similar features, according to a CellPhoneS executive.
Most retailers sold out the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max in natural titanium color.
Users only have a choice between blue and black for the 1 TB version. Meanwhile, the 15 and 15 Plus had better sales than their predecessors though the most popular color, pink, is also in short supply.
Overall, sales on the first day were lower than last year, when the iPhone 14 fetched VND1.5 trillion.
A Hoang Ha Mobile executive said the number of devices allocated to the country by Apple was not as high as last year.
The color options were also low, leading to the most popular models soon selling out, he said.
Retailers still have iPhone 15 devices in stock, mostly the regular versions and less popular colors like black.