BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The sales projection for mobile terminals in Latin America for 2002 is 54 million units, with an increase of 13 percent compared with last year, according to a report presented by Daniel Torras, Pyramid Research’s director. According to the report, the terminals with the best performance will be GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) units, which will jump from 6 percent of sales in 2001 to 23 percent, or 10.5 million units, this year.
TDMA terminals will continue to be the top sellers in the region, although TDMA handset market share will fall from 46 percent to 40 percent. Analog handset sales will decrease from 18 percent to 10 percent, while CDMA/1xRTT will also decline from 28 percent to 25 percent this year.
Although growth in terminal sales in Latin America will be 13 percent, according to the Pyramid Research report, not all countries will show similar increments. Handset sales in the Andean region, Central America, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay will increase more than 20 percent, while Argentina and Puerto Rico will see sales fall by approximately 35 percent and 15 percent respectively.
“The three largest handset vendors are behemoths Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola, controlling over two-thirds of the market. The rest of the market is shared by smaller players, with Korean players such as Samsung, LG Electronics, and Hyundai, enjoying a growing presence,” the report said.
“Players such as Panasonic and NEC, large in other parts of the world, have yet to make strong inroads in Latin America. Siemens, a long-time GSM proponent, has traditionally been shut out of Latin American markets, but the massive adoption of GSM in the coming years represents an attractive opportunity for the German vendor.”
