LATAM smartphone shipments fell 4% year-over-year (YoY) in (Q1) 2025 to mark the region’s first decline since Q2 2023, according to the latest Counterpoint Research Market Monitor report. However, it was good news for Apple.
Apple launched the new iPhone 16e which immediately captured the attention of its customers. The device jumped to the top of the Mexican sales charts in the US$700-$800 price segment, according to Counterpoint.
iPhone sales grew 26% year-over-year as of quarter one for 19% market share. However, Apple still trails Samsung, which has 31% market share.
Overall, the LATAM region delivered a mixed performance with some countries like Argentina and Chile continuing to grow, while Mexico and Brazil seeing significant declines. Counterpoint says that in March, Brazil’s inflation rate reached 5.4%, the country’s highest in two years. Increasing prices are starting to hurt local demand for devices as churn rates are also increasing among mobile carriers. Prepaid subscribers, who are highly sensitive to economic factors, have set alarms as disconnections exceeded subscriptions in Q1 2025.
Counterpoint says that Mexico barely escaped from technical recession in Q1 2025. The jobs market is slowly growing at pandemic-level rates, which, combined with lower exports amid trade uncertainty, has pushed manufacturers to ship lower smartphones into the country. These difficult economic factors will likely hit low-end consumers and prepaid users first, per the research group.
Counterpoint says Argentina’s smartphone shipments grew 69% on base effect after a tough first half of 2024 that followed the economy bottoming out in 2023. Argentina currently accounts for only 5% of the region’s shipment volume but steady growth could help its share rise to double-digit percentages.
