Shoppers browse for laptops at Pico Supermarket in Ha Noi. Personal computer sales dropped 32 per cent in the first quarter over the same period last year. — VNS Photo Truong Vi

The global IT research and marketing company said Tet in January – when people do not buy computers and phones — and the popularity of tablets and smart phones caused the decline.

"IDC predicts that for the whole of this year the PC market won't grow due to economic difficulties and strong attraction and reasonable prices of tablets and smart phones," Phan Thi Hoang Yen, an IDC analyst, said.

Dell retained its leading position followed by ASUS, thanks to its price cuts.

Though Sony stopped sales of PCs, it still accounted for a nearly 8 per cent market share with its competitive mid-range notebook.

Sales of mobile phones also declined by 4.9 per cent in comparison with the previous quarter and 0.7 per cent from the same period last year to around 6.6 million.

Feature phone sales fell by 13.6 per cent from the previous quarter, losing out to low-priced smart phones.

Smart phones accounted for 38.6 per cent of sales, a sharp rise from the 21.8 per cent in the same period last year.

"In the Vietnamese market, low-price smart phones costing under US$150, have taken the biggest market share," Vo Le Tam Thanh, another IDC expert, said.

"Expensive smart phones have been facing challenges."

Only Apple bucked the trend with its strong growth thanks to a tie-up with FPT.

Windows-based phones recovered after a decline at the end of last year.

Sales of Windows smart phones shot up by 61.3 per cent from the previous quarter and 361 per cent year-on-year.

"Viet Nam is the only market in the Asia – Pacific where the number of Nokia smart phones sold is the same as Samsung," Daniel Pang, head of IDC ASEAN's users' equipment study group, said. — VNS