MobiFone provides 3G services in Vietnam
Date: May 30th, 2008 1:26:00 pm - Subscribe
Mood: upside-down
This year Vietnam will have two instead of three CDMA-based Earphone Case networks like in 2007 because HT Mobile announced it will replace CDMA with GSM technology. MobiFone and Viettel plan to provide 3G services in 2008. Though both networks stated they had been testing 3G technology for several years, it is possible that Viettel will surpass VinaPhone and even MobiFone in this field. Meanwhile, S-Fone will continue providing services based on CDMA EV-DO 2000 1x technology, for example MMS, Mobile-Payment, Location Service, etc. If S-Fone offers these services, it can get many more subscribers. However, it is said that Vietnam is approaching the saturation point for mobile services. While S-Fone plans to supply Mobile-Payment services this year, East Asia Bank has announced it will provide Donga Home Banking service, which enables its clients to perform transactions on their mobile phones, valued at up to VND500 million. "Of two e-payment modes that many banks in Vietnam are using â€" SMS (via mobile phone) and Internet â€" the first mode is very limited because of technical problems and client's worries about transaction security," said Thai Nguyen Hoang Nha, Director of the East Asia Bank's IT centre. According to experts, if Vietnam doesn't quickly implement 3G, it will be one of the countries with the poorest range of services on mobile phones. It is forecast that the number of new mobile subscribers will not rise as fast as 2007 because it is proving difficult for mobile service providers to slash charges as strongly this year. The policy to control pre-paid accounts is another reason. Therefore, service providers may launch promotional campaigns or design new service packages. For example, in early 2008, S-Fone launched its VND1 service package, one of its strategic service packages for 2008. "With the plan to diversify service packages, we hope this package will help us to have 5.5 million subscribers in 2008," said S-Fone's Executive Director Ho Hong Son. No big changes in cell phone market It is predicted that Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson will still be the major players in this market. In 2007, Motorola didn't introduce as many new models as its rivals so although Motorola was the third-most popular brand of cell phone in Vietnam last year in terms of market share, the position of this brand will fall this year if this firm doesn't change its product policy. However, it will not be easy for Sony Ericsson to surpass Motorola to take the third position in Vietnam. According to a prestigious market research company, over 5 million cell phones were sold in Vietnam last year (compared to over 3.5 million units in 2006), worth around $800 million (not including smuggled products). It is said that sales of cell phones this year will be around 5 million like last year. Cell phones that Vietnamese companies order from China and Chinese and Thai products strongly infiltrated the Vietnamese market last year but these products are for the popular market segment only. Viettel has become a cell phone distributor and one of the two official distributors of Samsung mobile phones. The trend of directly importing and distributing cell phones, which appeared in 2007, will continue this year, and will affect revenues of official distributors in Vietnam. Most representatives of mobile phone manufacturers in Vietnam said they don't agree with this way of distribution but Vietnam has to obey WTO commitments on opening the retail market. This year iPhone will still be a hot smartphone as Vietnamese customers are demonstrating their love for this product. However, it seems that there will not be an official distributor of iPhone in Vietnam this year.
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Dow chemical to raise its prices by 20%
Date: May 30th, 2008 1:25:00 pm - Subscribe
Mood: reminiscent
Dow Chemical Co., America’s biggest chemical manufacturer, has said it will increase prices for all products by up to 20 percent, another indication that rising energy prices were stoking inflation. Dow said the price increases will be effective from June 1 for all its chemicals and plastics, used in thousands of products from paints and adhesives to insecticides and packaging. Chief Executive Andrew Liveris, critical of U.S. energy policy, said the government's failure to push through new energy policy is hurting domestic manufacturing and killing demand. "For years, Washington has failed to address the issue of rising energy costs and, as a result, the country now faces a true energy crisis, one that is causing serious harm to America's manufacturing sector and all consumers of energy," Liveris said in a statement. The announcement is unsurprising to most industry experts since natural gas prices, a key chemical industry supply, have jumped by 56 percent since the end of 2007, and crude oil prices have risen 32 percent to above $125 per barrel. "What Dow's doing does help give headline support, but everybody has been doing it anyway," First Analysis Securities analyst Steven Schwartz said.
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