Laptop price increases slightly

Prices of some new laptop models increased from one to 1.5% of the machine's value compared to the previous month, while models under 10 million VND kept the price unchanged.

Most models with price adjustments this month are newly imported and range from over VND 13 million with an increase of one to 1.5% of the machine value. For example, the Dell Inspiron N3010 (7N8NT2) has a price in October (excluding VAT) of 13.84 million, this month it has increased by more than VND 300,000 to 14.18 million. The HP G42-361TU in October (excluding VAT) is 13.1 million and was slightly adjusted to 13.2 million in November.

Meanwhile, models with less than VND 13 million or low-priced models under VND 10 million use old Core 2 Duo or Pentium chips with almost no price changes.

Laptop price increases slightly Picture 1
Models with price adjustment are usually concentrated in new models with over VND 15 million.
(Photo: Tuan Hung).

This adjustment is hardly surprising to consumers. Mr. Duc Khiem (Ha Dong, Hanoi) said he is also looking to buy a laptop to do graphic design. The model he is " aiming " for is Dell Studio 15 months ago costing more than 20 million, this month increased by about 300,000 compared to nearly two months ago. " Although it is a little regrettable because it was not decided early, but I think the increase is reasonable if compared to the gold market and the US dollar is" in trouble "recently, " said Khiem.

According to Mr. Hoang Tung, Director of Product and Marketing Center of Digiworld Corporation (DGW), when importing original laptops into Vietnam, the company must use foreign currency for payment, mainly in USD. The sharp rise in the USD exchange rate and the recent supply shortage led to importers having to buy from many different sources with a large difference in the rate offered by banks.

A business staff of CMC revealed that the USD exchange rate that this company used to pay is complicated in the past one month. Each USD has increased by about 1,500 VND, even the peak date has increased to 1,800 VND compared to the middle of last month.

Laptop price increases slightly Picture 2
Accepting reduced profits to keep sales and market stabilization is the way most distributors and retailers are applying. (Photo: Tuan Hung).

Mr. Hoang Tung said, if only based on the USD exchange rate to raise the prices of current products, each product will have a relatively high increase. For example, a laptop worth about VND15 million (about US $ 750) will be nearly a million VND in just over a month.

In order to avoid causing " shock " to users and not greatly affect sales, most companies accept to keep the price of the product or only slightly adjust from one to 300,000 VND for some models by reduce minimum profits and offer consumer support promotions.

In addition, the cycle of a product after appearing about 3 to 6 months will start to receive a discount. Therefore, at present, some products of this type will have less reduction than before or not decrease. For example, the HP Compaq 510 prices in September and October are 8,660,000 VND, a negligible decrease compared to prices in November of 8,636,000 VND (excluding VAT). The representative of FPT Shop and business staff of CMC said that in the past month, there have not been many price adjustment models, if there is a price increase, it is not much.

The number of laptops sold remains stable and not reduced. A salesperson of Tran Anh said that the customers who come to see the machines at the booths are still quite crowded and very few questions are raised about the price increase.