The global sale of smartphones was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the first two quarters of the year, and although during the third quarter total shipments reached 359.6 million units, in the fourth quarter it decreased again by 2 %.
In the case of Mexico and Latin America, the situation was not different, because of the 5 companies that sell the most telephones in our market and the region, only one company managed to report an increase in sales compared to what was sold the previous year.
Xiaomi is the only one that grows
According to the Canalys report, only Xiaomi achieved green numbers when it comes to sales in Mexico and Latin America during Q4 (October to December) in 2020.
The Chinese firm reported a growth of 150% compared to the sales obtained in the same period of the previous year. With this, it maintains a market share of 10%, which is why it remains the fourth company that sells the most phones in Mexico.
The first position is still occupied by Samsung, which despite reporting a decrease in sales growth of 20% compared to the previous year, maintains a 20% market share.
Motorola remains in the second position with a market share of 19%, so it is very close to catching up with Samsung; however, the Lenovo-owned firm is the one that registered the largest decrease compared to Q4 sales in 2019 with a total of 50%.
A similar case is the one suffered by Huawei which, since the commercial veto that prevents it from using Google services was established, has decreased its sales in the region. Currently, the firm maintains a 15% market share in Mexico and registered a 43% decrease compared to 2019, the year in which it still sold equipment with Google services included.
In the fifth position is Apple with a 9% market share, which allowed it to rise to the fifth position in sales in Mexico this year, all despite registering a decrease in sales of 29% in our market.
A similar situation in Latin America
The case of Mexico is very similar to that of Latin America; in fact, the top 5 selling brands held the same positions as last year.
As in Mexico, only Xiaomi increased its sales by 215%, while Huawei was the firm that registered the largest drop in a year with -36%.
Samsung and Apple were the two companies least affected by the pandemic in Latin America with a decrease of 6 and 2% respectively.
However, Samsung is still the region’s sales leader with a 37% market share, a far cry from Motorola’s 19% and Xiaomi and Apple’s 9%.