Apple mania sweeps across Vietnam (pictures)

Dang Dung Street in the center of Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, features pawn shop after pawn shop selling -- what else? -- iPhones and iPads.

Nearly every block in Hanoi has a store hawking the iPhone or at least using the Apple logo to draw in customers. And people in Vietnam wear the Apple logo on everything, from motorbike helmets to hoodies.

A store across from Hanoi's Temple of Literature -- the country's first university, built in 1070 -- touts Apple products along with Samsung, Nokia and others.

Older iPhones -- such as 2010's iPhone 4 and 2011's iPhone 4S -- remain popular in Vietnam, where many people make less than $150 a month. In TheGiodidong stores in Hanoi, a popular phone chain in Vietnam, the 8GB iPhone 4S costs 4,990,000 VND or $229.

The coffee shop culture is big in Vietnam. People can spend hours sipping their Vietnamese iced coffees, laden with condensed milk. And many kill time on their iPhones and iPads while hanging out with friends in the coffee shops.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has called out the surging iPhone demand in Vietnam despite the fact there are no Apple Stores within Vietnam's borders and the fact iPhones aren’t exactly cheap.

More than half of the smartphones sold in Vietnam in the first quarter came from Apple and Samsung, according to Strategy Analytics. Vietnam today is the world’s 11th largest mobile phone market by volume, the tech research firm said.

Apple doesn't have any Apple Stores in Vietnam, but it does have authorized resellers, like F.Studio. This store in a mall in Hanoi looks pretty familiar to anyone who's visited an Apple Store before.

An F.Studio store in Hanoi sells everything from iPhones to Macs and accessories. Apple counts on resellers like the company to distribute its devices in Vietnam.