This year the U.S. tech giant has signed up ShopDunk, Di Dong Viet, Minh Tuan Mobile, CellphoneS, FPTShop, and The Gioi Di Dong as official distributors of its products.

Sale events for the iPhone 12 have thus been held at various places, attracting long queues of fans.

While the sale only started at midnight, many showed up as early as afternoon, very much resembling the scenes in front of Singapore’s Apple Stores in previous years.

Besides various discounts offered by distributors, the official price of the iPhone 12 is also cheaper than those brought in from other countries, leading to a surge in orders.

The fancier 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max account for 60 percent of the sales this year, causing stocks to quickly run out, while the iPhone 12 and 12 mini are not in great demand.

Cao Dai Thanh of HCMC’s Thu Duc District was the first to receive the new iPhone in Vietnam after arriving at 5 p.m. on Thursday. He bought a Pro Max.

He said this was the first time he bought from an authorized seller, and in the past he would buy from people bringing it from broad.

Apple has strict and uniform policies globally, and so buyers can only activate their phones after midnight Thursday even if they had bought them earlier.