Sales of multimedia phones like the iPhone are helping boost wireless sales in Latin America.
An in-depth report on the fast-growing wireless market in Latin America. Both operators and handset vendors are gaining strongly.
BY CHRONICLE STAFF
Latin America's wireless market continues to boom. Operators like America Movil, Telefonica and NII Holdings, and vendors from Nokia to Sony Ericsson are reporting healthy growth. Even Motorola, the troubled U.S. telecom vendor, is seeing slight growth in Latin America.
Latin America set a new record last year in wireless phone shipments and is expected to grow strongly again this year, experts say. Last year, vendors sent a total of 138.4 million wireless phones to Latin America, an increase of 12.2 percent from 2006, according to data from Strategy Analytics.
Nokia and Motorola - the top two vendors - both grew their sales, but reduced their market shares, while Sony Ericsson replaced LG as the third-largest vendor in Latin America, a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of Strategy data shows. "In 2007, Sony Ericsson and LG made significant gains in the Latin American market," says Bonny Joy, a U.S.-based wireless device analyst at Strategy Analytics.
The strong handset growth means higher penetration rates. In Argentina it reached 97 percent last year, once again the highest in the region, according to new data from Telefonica. That represents an increase from the 80.5 ...
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From: MurrayR, Buenos Aires, AR Soaring sales of Apple’s iPhone 3G in Latin America reveal an investment opportunity with one of the most overlooked telecom providers in the world. America Movil (NYSE: AMX) already has a waiting list of consumers waiting to buy the Apple iPhone 3G — indicating that strong future sales could propel the Latin American carrier to new highs.
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