A pple has landed its first official distributorship in Vietnam, according to a report from the Vietnam News Agency. The Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FTP) will be the first "official" distributor of Apple products in the communist country, meaning that it will be competing with a very few gray market resellers.
According to the reports, FTP will "provide customers in Vietnam with Appleis products at preferential prices and quality after-sales service."
Though the communist regime remains firmly in control of Vietnam, the government has greatly loosened restrictions on business and commerce in the last several years. This has led to a growing number of entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout the country.
That Apple doesnit have a distributor in the country might be a surprise to anyone who has toured the country, or at least to observant Mac users who have toured the company, because of a popular tour company that uses Appleis old six-color logo as its own.
The image below was taken in the summer of 2002 from inside another tour bus screaming through the northern part of Vietnam by TMO staff. Unfortunately, we could not find the offices of this company in the time that we had to try and get a copy of the giant logo, but the company is not associated with Apple Computer.
The back of a tour bus owned by a company
that uses Appleis old six-color logo.
(Click the image for a larger view)
You can read the Vietnam News Agencyis article at its Web site.