Vietnam will consume nearly 4.7 million mobile phones this year, and roughly 6.3 million units next year, local newspaper Investment Wednesday quoted estimation of a market research firm as saying.

Vietnam's mobile phone market is estimated at 877 million U.S. dollars in 2006 and 1,167 million dollars in 2007, according to the estimation of market research company GfK Asia in the country.

Some 53 percent of mobile phones to be sold in Vietnam this year will be camera phones, the company predicted, noting that the percentage was 50 percent last year. Best-selling mobile phones in 2006 are priced 100-200 U.S. dollars, while units with price tags of 400-500 dollars will account for only 3-4 percent of the total sales in the year.

Vietnam is expected to have 36 million mobile phone subscribers by 2010, up from some 17 million currently, according to the state- owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunication Group.

The country with a population of 83.1 million has set targets of having 32-42 fixed and mobile phones, 10 personal computers, and 8-12 Internet subscribers for every 100 residents by 2010.

GfK forecast that Vietnam's information technology, telecommunications and electronics market will surpass 2.3 billion dollars in 2006 and reach 3 billion dollars in 2007.

Source: Xinhua