News & Reviews:   VIETNAM

If you have a habit of placing your phone on the bedside while charging, you might want to stop doing that from today onwards. Recently, a Vietnamese couple suffered severe burns because their mobile phones exploded. So, what should you know about it?

DuitNow QR, the interoperable QR standard for real-time payments and funds transfers operated by Malaysia’s national payments network PayNet currently offers cross-border payments in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. Well, this cross-border feature may soon expand to the Philippines and Vietnam, as both countries’ respective central banks have joined the Regional Payment Connectivity (RPC) initiative.

Previously, we reported that Apple is expanding its operations in India, with half of all iPhones expected to be manufactured in the country by 2027. Now, the tech giant has reportedly begun manufacturing AirPods components in India too, which is part of its plans to move production away from China. 

Apple is reportedly planning to move its MacBook lineup’s production from China to Vietnam for the first time next year. This diversification move is following the rising tension between the United States and China, with the tech giant’s top supplier, Taiwan's Foxconn being told to start manufacturing MacBooks in Vietnam around May 2023.

Vietnam is set to become one of Apple’s largest production hubs as the tech giant is reportedly planning to make Apple Watches and MacBooks in the country for the first time ever. Currently, Vietnam is already producing a wide range of flagship products for Apple, including the iPad and AirPods.

A new study by Visa have found that 93 percent of consumers in Southeast Asia have embraced cashless payment methods, including cards, contactless cards and mobile contactless, mobile wallets and QR code payments. Furthermore, the study found that 74 percent of Malaysian consumers have successfully gone cashless.

Based on a statement by asia.nikkei.com, it seems that Apple has started shifting their manufacturing operations to countries such as Vietnam, India, and Malaysia in order to reduce their dependency on China. The report also mentioned that Vietnam will focus on iPad production starting from the middle this year while Malaysia will manufacture the Mac Mini.

Based on a statement by BusinessKorea, it seems that LG might be keen on selling their smartphone business to Vingroup Co, which is a company that’s located in Vietnam. For those who are not aware, the aforementioned group has a rather large portfolio in distribution, hospitality, vehicles, and more.

OPPO has recently announced that they have opened their very first Super Flagship Store in Thailand, which offers a much more luxurious shopping experience for OPPO customers. Not only that, but the store also has a dedicated 5G network which can be used to test the network speeds of any 5G-capable OPPO devices.