The mobile industry is bracing for the launch of the iPhone 4 in Vietnam which brings with it some challenges.

As the number of iPhone 3GS’ have dwindled to virtually none, the release of the iPhone 4 is just around the corner. The latest from Apple will officially appear on the Vietnam market in early September. Telecommunication companies are worried about difficulties due to a sim card slot that is smaller than the standard size used in Vietnam.

According to Mrs. Nguyen Thu Hong, Media Manager of Vinaphone, the company has no intention to import more of the 3GS model because iPhone 4’s Vietnam debut is just days away.

A leader of VinaPhone revealed that they ordered a limited number of the newest iPhones partially because of the high price.

Both VinaPhone and Viettel are confused about the specially designed sim card slot on the new iPhone 4. Compared to previous lines, the new generation phone only accepts a sim card which is ¾ smaller than a normal one.

VinaPhone’s solution is to produce a new kind of sim card to fit the phone but this will lead to some problems; the logo of the telecommunication company and confidential code can’t be printed on the size of these smaller sim cards and if consumers want to keep their old sim cards, they won’t fit into the new sim card slot.

Another solution is to print data of the telecommunication companies and numbers of the sim card on the cover of its plastic cover. If consumers want to keep their old sim cards, they may need scissors to “reduce” their size.