Although Vietnam's inflation rate remains high, mobile phone shipments performed well in Q3 2011. According to IDC's Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker 2011 Q3, ­smartphone shipments in the country increased 48% sequentially in Q3, led by Samsung and HTC as they stepped up their efforts in the market.

Low-cost and dual-SIM phones helped boost feature phone performance, leading to a 42% increase in shipments during this period. Total mobile phone shipments in Vietnam enjoyed strong growth of 43% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).

Local players by contrast had mixed results sequentially, with most of the growth driven by Viettel's house-brand low-cost handsets.

"Spurred by the strong performances of Samsung and HTC, smartphones are the hot item for 2011 with IDC forecasting the market to hit 44% in annual growth by the end of the year. Vietnam continues to have a lot of smartphone potential and we expect shipments to rise by another 51% in 2012," says Võ Lê Tâm Thanh, Senior Market Analyst for Client Devices Research Group at IDC Vietnam.

Top Three Mobile Phone Vendors

Nokia maintained its top position overall through its low-cost phones. The 1800 and 1280 are its most popular models. Additionally, Nokia's dual-SIM X1-01 also performed well. However, Nokia's smartphones saw a major decline in 3Q due to heavy competition from other vendors.

Samsung became the new leader in Vietnam's smartphone market, as Android-powered smartphones drove up volumes.

The only local vendor that maintained high shipments in Q3 was Viettel, which saw high growth for its V6102 and V6202 models.