Singaporeans need to work 6 days, Malaysia needs 34 days, and how long does it take for Vietnamese to buy iPhone 13 Pro?

On the night of September 14, Apple officially launched the iPhone 13 series with 4 versions of iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. New phones are improved by Apple in terms of performance, camera and screen, new colors.

iPhone 13 mini is priced from 699 USD, and iPhone 13 from 799 USD. The minimum memory option is 128 GB and the maximum is 512 GB. iPhone 13 and 13 Pro have 4 capacity options: 128, 256, 512 GB and 1 TB. The price for iPhone 13 Pro is from 999 USD and 13 Pro Max is from 1,099 USD. Apple started to open orders from September 17 and sold on the market from September 24.

Counterpoint Research forecasts that the launch of iPhone 13 and the popularity of iPhone 12 will help the number of 5G smartphones sold globally in the fourth quarter of 2021 to nearly 200 million units, so the total number of smartphones 5G in 2021 will reach about 605 million.

Last year, despite its late October launch, Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup accounted for 24% of all 5G smartphones globally. This year, with the usual launch, iPhone 13 will help Apple account for 33% of all 5G smartphones sold globally.

It’s no wonder that in Southeast Asia, the iPhone will continue to be one of the hottest items this year. So how many days does a person need to work on average to buy an iPhone in each country?

The price of iPhone 13 Pro in different Southeast Asian countries

For accuracy, the comparison we will use is the price of the iPhone 13 Pro. So what is the price of iPhone 13 Pro at websites?

In the Philippines, this price is the lowest at about 29.1 million dong; in Singapore is about 27.85 million VND; In Malaysia the price starts from 26.74 million VND, and in Thailand the price of iPhone 13 Pro starts from 27.29 million VND.

In Vietnam, the reference price of iPhone 13 Pro in some store systems ranges from VND 30.99 – 46.99 million.

*Exchange rate as of September 15, 2021

How many days does it take to work to afford an iPhone 13 Pro?

According to data from tradingeconomics, with the average salary varying in each region, the average number of days it takes a person to afford an iPhone 13 Pro is different.

In the Philippines, average hourly wages in the country vary considerably from city to city. For example, in Taguig it is 64.1 thousand VND/hour, while in Davao it is 45.04 thousand VND/hour. At the national level, the average salary is 30.48 thousand VND/hour, equivalent to 243.8 thousand VND/day. So, if you want to buy an iPhone 13 Pro, the average person will need to work at least 119 days.

In Singapore, the average salary is 550.65 thousand VND/hour, equivalent to about 4.4 million VND/day. Since the iPhone 13 Pro only costs about 27.85 million VND, it only takes an average person about 6 working days to buy it.

In Malaysia, the iPhone 13 Pro in the country starts at VND 26.74 million, while the average salary also varies from city to city. For example, in Ipoh, the average salary is about 185.6 thousand VND/hour, while in Kuala Lumpur, the salary is about 294.8 thousand VND/hour, if one works at least 160 hours/month. However, in general, the average salary of Malaysia is 98.26 thousand VND/hour, totaling about 786 thousand VND/day.

Thus, the average person in Malaysia needs to work at least 34 days to be able to own an iPhone 13 Pro.

Similar to the Philippines and Malaysia, Thailand also has a large difference in average wages, depending on the city. However, across the country, the average salary of workers is about 471.6 thousand VND/day. As such, it takes at least 54 business days in Thailand to buy an iPhone 13 Pro.

What about Vietnam? According to the latest data from the General Statistics Office, the average monthly income of salaried workers in the first quarter of 2021 reached 7.2 million VND. Thus, with the reference price of iPhone 13 Pro, Vietnamese workers need at least 130 days to buy a new phone.