Samsung tops Latin America smartphone sales in Q1 with 42.4% share

Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for 42.4 percent of smartphone shipments in Latin America in the first quarter, up from 37.9 percent a year ago, with the launch of new models and aggressive marketing.

Counterpoint Research attributed the increased sales to renewing part of its A-series portfolio this year and the heavy investment it poured on an advertisement during the February launch of new flagship models Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Trailing Samsung was US phone maker Motorola with 21.8 percent and China's Xiaomi with 8.4 percent.

South Korea's LG Electronics, which exits the mobile phone business by July's end, ranked fourth with a 5.8 percent market share.

Smartphone shipments in Latin America soared by 22.2 percent on-year in the first quarter, with Argentina seeing the highest on-year growth with 113 percent, followed by Peru with 51 percent.