LATAM smartphone shipments fell 3.3% YoY to reach 119 million units in 2023, according to Counterpoint’s latest Market Monitor research. Despite the region’s strong shipment growth in H2 2023, driven by fierce competition among Chinese OEMs and upgrades from Apple, the annual numbers were constrained by the double-digit percentage shipment decline recorded in H1 2023.

Samsung was the only top five OEM to have shipments fall in 2023. They had 35.9% market share in 2023 versus 41.6% in 2022 as shown in the chart below. Apple grew their market share from 5.2% in 2022 to 6.6% in 2023. This supports Apple's CEO Tim Cook noting during their Feb. 02 Financial Conference call that "We set all-time records in several countries and regions, including Latin America, Western Europe, the Middle East, and Korea.

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Commenting on the market dynamics, Senior Research Analyst Tina Lu said, “An aged installed base and an abundance of promotions stemming from fierce competition among OEMs led to YoY growth in sales. The length of the promotions was also longer in Q4 2023 versus the year-ago period. It started at the beginning of November 2023 and continued until the second week of January 2024. Geographically, Brazil and smaller markets like Central America and Venezuela saw the biggest growth. Venezuela has seen an increase in the inflow of US dollars after the US softened its sanctions on the country, which has boosted smartphone consumption.

For Q4 2023, Apple's market share grew from 6.8% in Q2022 to 7.7% in Q4 2023.