Vietnamese consumers place hundreds of billions of dong in iPhone 18 Pro

Apple and its authorised resellers opened pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in Vietnam at 7 pm on September 12, triggering a surge in demand across both online and retail channels.

Within minutes, the iPhone 18 Pro Max was reported as sold out on Apple's Online Store, with delivery dates pushed back to early October.

Retailers also recorded strong demand. By 11 pm on September 13, Mobile World Investment's The Gioi Di Dong chain had received more than 195,000 pre-orders, including nearly 178,000 confirmed deposits.

During the same period, Viettel Store reported 57,000 deposits, CellphoneS recorded almost 40,000 expressions of interest, while Hoang Ha Mobile received around 18,000 deposits.

CellphoneS said it processed more than 10,000 successful deposits within the first 15 minutes of pre-orders opening, representing a 40 per cent increase compared with the launch of the previous generation.

The figures do not include orders placed through other major retailers such as FPT Shop, Di Dong Viet, Minh Tuan Mobile and ShopDunk. With deposits typically set at VND 1 million (USD 38) per device, advance payments collected by retailers are estimated to total several hundred billion dong.

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are scheduled to go on sale in Vietnam on September 18. However, industry sources say not all customers who have placed deposits will receive their devices on launch day.

Retailers expect supply of the iPhone 18 Pro, particularly the Pro Max in the new Burgundy Red colour, to remain limited during the initial release period. Some sellers forecast supply constraints could persist until the end of October.

In Vietnam, the 256GB versions of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are priced at VND 39 million (USD 1,500) and VND 42 million (USD 1,615) respectively. The top-tier 2TB models retail for VND 78 million (USD 3,000) and VND 81 million (USD 3,115).

Retailers said the 256GB and 512GB variants have attracted the strongest interest from Vietnamese consumers, while customers ordering the Burgundy Red version may face longer waiting times because of limited availability.