Vietnamese consumers spent well over half a billion U.S. dollars on smartphones in the first quarter of this year, data from a market tracker shows.

Viet Nam’s smartphone sales in the three months reached 3.02 million units, up 25 percent from the same period last year, a local retailer has told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, citing data by German market research firm GfK.

The more than three million unit sales were collectively worth VND13.6 trillion (US$624.71 million), meaning the price of a smartphone averaged VND4.5 million ($207), according to data from the same source.

A man tests out an HTC smartphone at a mobile phone store in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnamese consumers have increasingly preferred smartphones to feature phones, with a wide range of brands to choose from, including Samsung, Oppo, Mobiistar, Q-Mobile, Asus, Sony, Apple and Microsoft. Oppo reported the strongest growth thanks to numerous promotional campaigns.

More smartphone users in Viet Nam have switched to devices with screens bigger than four inches than the same period last year.

Handsets whose price averaged VND4.5 million were the bestsellers in the Jan-Mar period. Microsoft, Samsung, and Oppo have many products in this price segment.

(Source: tuoitrenews)