Tuan Anh's shops also take care of repairing other kinds of mobile phones from any vendors, especially those without a support office in Hanoi; and the shops are faring well. When I was at the Nguyen Du street business, all his technicians were busy working on different phones, two of them iPhones. The workshop's atmosphere was professional and quiet; a job like this requires a lot of concentration.
It's striking to witness the amount of work these skilful workers get through, considering how modestly equipped the workshop is. The most sophisticated equipment I could see were a Pintex Oscilloscope and a couple of microscopes. The rest of the tools, such as solderers, tiny screwdrivers, tweezers, alcohol and towels, are the sorts of things you could find at most hardware stores.
Tuan Anh now has about 30 employees, paying them $300 (£200) a month on average. That's a very good salary considering the average income of a Hanoian is just around $100 (£66) a month.
Asked why he decided to get into this business, Tuan Anh, who holds bachelor's degrees in history and journalism from Hanoi National University, traces it to a passion for computers and electronics, an interest he shares with many other Vietnamese.
He hopes that what he's been doing with the iPhones wouldn't be considered 'illegal' in the US. Oddly enough, his dream is to become an Apple partner officially supporting the company's products in Vietnam.
Illegal or not, Apple's idiosyncratic policy has given this bright man an opportunity to do more than just make a living. He's proven that we really can be the master of our tools, not vice versa.
