According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service, the Brazil smartphone market showed positive signs of growth with 2% YOY growth in Q1 2018. Commenting on the findings Senior Analyst, Tina Lu, said, “Although Brazil’s economy has been stable since last year, its mobile device market started 2018 with mixed results. Overall mobile devices decreased, while smartphones increased marginally. This is a preview of what we expect for the rest of the year. Some uptick, but mainly stable or even some decrease as Brazil faces presidential elections in October this year, and uncertainty about its outcome is prompting the market to be cautious.” Commenting on regional growth, Research Analyst, Parv Sharma, said, “Due to high barriers to entry, Brazil’s smartphone market is very consolidated. The top five smartphone brands accounted for almost 85% of the total smartphone market in Q1 2018. However, this brand landscape will be challenged by Huawei, which is planning to re-enter the market by partnering with Brazilian consumer electronics manufacturer, Positivo, in the latter part of Q3 2018.” Parv, also highlighted, “We saw an increase in the lower price bands. More than 80% of the market lies below USD199, around a 7% increase from the same quarter last year. This was driven by an increasing focus from the top three brands Samsung, Motorola and LG. As a result, their models dominate the sub- USD199 price band. Although Samsung launched the 2018 version of the J series, it kept the older generation series in the market, as they were still contributing to the majority of Samsung’s sales.”

Exhibit 1: Brazil Smartphone Shipments Share by Brands

Source: Counterpoint Research: Quarterly Market Monitor Q1 2018

Market Summary:

• Brazil’s smartphone market grew slightly, 2.3% YoY, during Q1 2018.
• The smartphone segment contributed almost 93% of the total handset shipments during Q1 2018.
• Samsung had almost half the share of the smartphone market. This shows its strong grip on the Brazil market due to robust local manufacturing and high levels of marketing spend on promotional campaigns.
• Brazil is an important market for Motorola, it had a 19.8% share in the smartphone market and a healthy 20% YOY growth in Q1 2018.
• LG saw a 10% decline annually but maintained its third position in the smartphone market with an 11.4% share.
• Apple held the fourth position in the smartphone market with a 5.7% share in Q1 2018. Apple has lost share since it decided to stop assembling in Brazil.
• Local player Positivo was the fastest growing brand with 33% annual growth. It had a 1.9% share, holding the fifth position in the Brazil smartphone market.
• In terms of SOC’s, Mediatek dominated the smartphone market with a share of almost 38%. Samsung holding the second position, captured one third of the total smartphone market followed by Qualcomm, Spreadtrum and Apple.

Exhibit 2: Brazil Smartphone Market – Price Band Share by Quarter: Q1 2018

Source: Counterpoint Research: Quarterly Market Pulse Q1 2018

• Low to mid-end price bands dominate the Brazil smartphone market. Almost half of the smartphone market lies in the USD 100-199 price band.
• Both USD 0-99 and USD 100-199 price bands grew annually in Q1 2018.
• Samsung clearly dominates almost all the price bands except the USD >500 price band. Samsung’s success is dependent on its J series, as the top four bestselling smartphones were from Samsung and had a share of about 22% of the smartphone market.
• Motorola was ranked in second position in the USD 0-99 and USD 100-199, this is because of the its low-end segment Moto C and C Plus models.

The comprehensive and in-depth Q1 2018 Market Monitor is available for subscribing clients. Please feel free to contact us at press(at)counterpointresearch.com for further questions regarding our latest research, insights or press enquiries. The Market Monitor research is based on sell-in (shipments) estimates based on vendor’s IR results, vendor polling triangulated with sell-through (sales), supply chain checks and secondary research. Analyst Contacts: Tina Lu +54 91160411221 [email protected] Parv Sharma +91 974-259-6030 [email protected] Peter Richardson +44 791-723-1934 [email protected] Follow Counterpoint Research press(at)counterpointresearch.com