Samsung dominates the Latin American market, while Xiaomi, Transsion and Honor make the list

On February 24, the well-known data research company Canalys officially released the full-year 2024 and Q4 Latin America Smartphone report.

The report shows that the Latin American smartphone market grew by 15% year-on-year in 2024, with overall shipments reaching a record high of 137 million units. This is mainly due to the recovery of the smartphone market in Latin America, the transition from 4G to 5G has begun, the speed of the switch from feature phones to smartphones has accelerated, and the aggressive promotion strategy of brands has also played a decisive role.

Let me take a look at the ranking of the Latin American market in the fourth quarter of 2024:

From the overall Q4 performance, only MOTOROLA is down, and the other four are all up. I really did not expect Apple to enter the top five in this market, and the shipments are nearly equal to Transsion. Samsung is still strong, only it shipped more than 10 million units in a quarter.

Interestingly, only MOTOROLA fell in the whole year, and the other four companies all increased, of which the largest increase was Honor. But Glory didn't appear in the top five in Q4. As a whole, Samsung still dominates the Latin American market, leading domestic brands have a relatively large advantage, and annual shipments are nearly twice that of Xiaomi. However, Samsung's growth rate is not as fast as Xiaomi's, and Xiaomi will soon become the second according to this trend.

The 2024 performance report for the Latin American market believes that the players in the market are basically successful, especially the Chinese brands have reached a new high in shipments. But the market is relatively low-end, with the sub-$300 segment accounting for 72% of the overall market. That is to say, Latin America is a market dominated by low-end sales, which is good news for domestic brands, but in the future, the share of low-end will definitely decline, and the high-end will be the mainstream of the market.