IDC: Apple nearly triples Vietnam tablet growth in Q2

Vietnam's fast-growing tablet market registered 110 percent growth quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in the second quarter, led by Apple devices, an IDC study revealed.

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker released Monday, demand for Apple's latest new iPad as well as a fall in the price of iPad 2 also contributed to Apple's 170 percent quarter-on-quarter jump. In terms of operating system (OS), Vietnam's tablet shipment in the second quarter was led by iOS at 78 percent, followed by Android of 21 percent while the remaining 1 percent came from other OSes.

Samsung, Apple's main competitor in the market, had taken a big hit as a significant number of consumers switched to purchasing iPads instead of Galaxy Tabs this quarter.

Even though Android vendors have a competitive edge in the local smartphone market, they are unable to compete with Apple in the tablet segments, because iPad is "widely perceived to be in a league of their own", Vo Le Tam Thanh, senior market analyst of IDC Vietnam's client devices research, said in a statement.

In contrast, IDC found last week that shipment of feature phones and smartphones to Vietnam had fallen for the second quarter in a row, as inflation and recession in the economy hold back spending. The country's mobile phone market experienced a decline of 18 percent, but grew 10.9 percent year-on-year.