Smartphone shipments in Latin America surged 23.3% year-on-year in Q1 due to retailers moving to clear inventory, and Chinese vendors pushing aggressively.
Counterpoint Research did not disclose exact figures but claimed that this was a third consecutive quarter of YoY growth in the region, a “strong sign of market recovery”.
Senior Research Analyst, Tina Lu said: “Part of the growth was due to the sell-in declining in most markets in Q1 2023 to clear inventory, while in Q1 2024, operators and retailers were building inventory for Mother’s Day.
“Demand for smartphones was also fuelled by the Chinese OEMs increasingly getting aggressive with their promotions for 4G models and price discounts. All this defied the traditional seasonality and showed that the region’s sales channels were confident enough about the demand to build some inventory.
Growth in Mexico and Venezuela led the charge in LATAM but most markets saw double digit YoY growth. Argentina was noted to see a plunge in shipments by 62% due to its ongoing economic crisis. Counterpoint predicted that the Argentinian market will “continue to be soft” in Q2 and Q3.
“This will principally affect Samsung and Motorola. The grey market in the region continued to grow, fuelled by high import duties in many countries,” said Lu.
Rankings
Samsung saw an 8.5% decline YoY due to competition from Xiaomi and Honor, but remained LATAM market leader with 31% share particularly in the US$100-US$249 price bracket.
Motorola placed second with 21% share a slight increase YoY from 20%. Third was Xiaomi with 14% (up by 2%) and other vendors collectively made up 34% of the market (up from 26%).
Honor was noted to rank in the top five shipping vendors for three quarters consecutively despite entering LATAM only two years ago.
