
LatAm is stronghold for Asian smartphones
Latin America is a particular case of success for Asian smartphone brands.
According to the latest reports from Counterpoint Research and Gartner, Samsung had a 40.9% share of total sales in Q2, followed by LG (10.1%), Lenovo/Motorola (9.9%) and Huawei (8.5%). The first two are Korean and the latter two, Chinese.
The Motorola mobile brand, which has been controlled by Chinese electronics group Lenovo since 2014, is closing the gap on its rivals.
The positive cost-benefit ration of its phones, along with the brand's appeal to youngsters and millennials are cited by analysts as the main reasons for its success in the region.
According to financial results for the FYQ1 ended in June, which were released this month, Lenovo made a global net loss of US$54mn in the period, with revenues flat year-on-year. EBITDA was down to US$69mn.
Despite the poor results, the company is optimistic about the mobile market, mostly thanks to the Motorola brand. In its financial report, the Chinese manufacturer said that the number of smartphones sold jumped 56.4% in Latin America and 136.7% in Europe.
Latin America, in fact, is the sole region where Motorola is fighting neck-and-neck for second place in sales, pressing LG hard. Elsewhere in the world, as reported by IDC's Q2 Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker earlier this month, Lenovo/Motorola does not even appear in the top five mobile brands of shipped phones in the period.
This is why Lenovo is betting most of its chips in the region. In recent days, Motorola has been conducting events in major Latin American countries to announce the new smartphones in its G5 and Z2 lines. A launch also took place in São Paulo, Brazil on Thursday.
According to José Cardoso, general director of Motorola Brasil since February, while the Brazilian smartphone market grew 21% year-on-year in the first half of the year, Motorola saw sales rise 51% in the same period, upping its market share to nearly 20%, according to figures from consultancy GfK.
Smartphones continue to be acquired eagerly by Brazilians. According to the latest edition of Webshoppers, a quarterly report by e-commerce consultancy Ebit, the segment telephony/cell phones led e-commerce sales in Brazil in the first half of the year, accounting for 22.3% of all e-commerce revenues in the period, although it was only fourth in terms of volume, with 10.3% of all e-commerce products shipped.
Cardoso said that Motorola has "consolidated" its vice leadership of the Brazilian market in the last two years.
Sergio Buniac, general manager for the region, told BNamericas that the company has been growing 30-40% faster than the market in Latin America, and that growth has been seen in all countries.
The executive cites data from IDC to claim that, unlike what Counterpoint and Gartner reports, Motorola has already overtaken LG to second spot in sales.
Subscribe to the most trusted business intelligence platform in Latin America. Let us show you our solutions for Suppliers, Contractors, Operators, Government, Legal, Financial and Insurance.
News in: ICT (Brazil)

Brazil’s Edge UOL, Embratel extend ties with Amazon Web Services
Edge UOL and América Móvil's Embratel announced new investments in cloud and edge computing leveraged by AWS.

Petrobras begins assembling yet another supercomputer
The contract for the Gaia high-capacity processing (HPC) machine was signed for 76mn reais (US$14.55mn) with Dell.
Subscribe to Latin America’s most trusted business intelligence platform.
Other projects in: ICT (Brazil)
Get critical information about thousands of ICT projects in Latin America: what stages they're in, capex, related companies, contacts and more.
- Project: AZ2 data center
- Current stage:
- Updated:
8 months ago
Other companies in: ICT (Brazil)
Get critical information about thousands of ICT companies in Latin America: their projects, contacts, shareholders, related news and more.
- Company: Vtex
-
Vtex, founded in 1999 in Brazil, provides companies with cloud commerce platforms. Based in Sao Paulo, it is present in 17 countries and has Latin American offices in Argentina,...
- Company: Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A.  (Embraer)
-
Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A. (Embraer) is a Brazilian global corporation engaged in the design, development, manufacturing and sale of aircrafts and systems. Through i...
- Company: Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica  (Cade)
-
Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (Cade) is Brazil's antitrust body. Since the overhaul of the country's competition law in 2012, all reportable transactions must be a...
- Company: ArenaBV Network
- Company: Nexa Tecnologia & Outsourcing Ltda
- Company: Stocche Forbes Advogados
- Company: Algar S.A. Empreendimentos e Participações  (Algar)
-
Algar S.A. Empreendimentos e Participações (Algar) is a familiar firm belonging to the Portuguese entrepreneur Alejandrino García which operates in the telecommunication, inform...
- Company: Claro Telecom Participações S.A.  (Claro Brasil)
-
Fixed and mobile telephony provider Claro S.A. (Claro Brasil) is the Brazilian unit of the Claro brand owned by Latin American telecom giant América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V. The com...