Latin America. By 2025 there will be 85 million 5G terminals in Latin America, according to Counterpoint Research. The consultancy warns that, at the moment, 5G has not taken off in the region due to the shortage of networks and equipment at competitive prices, but points out that this panorama will change radically from next year.
"In Latin America, 80 percent of the smartphone market is below $200. So we need devices that come in at that price to really blow up the market. There are two drawbacks: on the one hand, there are not enough networks, and there are not enough chips globally. That's why even vendors, OEMs, aren't really pushing the technology yet through offering sufficiently competitive devices in the region," said Tina Lu, Principal Analyst at Counterpoint Research.
During the webinar "The role of devices in the growth of 5G" organized by 5G Americas, the expert assured that "this will change from 2022. By 2025 we will have 85 million units between CPEs and 5G smartphones in the region. Brazil, Chile and Mexico will be the ones who will lead the growth in smartphones in the short term."
The growth of sales of 5G devices globally will be much faster than that of their 4G peers, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research. "In 4G, by the third year we saw 83 million devices, and only by the fourth year we saw more than 200 million. Now in terms of 5G, we see that already in the third year of the technology there will be sales of 565 million devices, and by the sixth year, more than 1,000 million against 900 million of 4G, "explained Lu.
"For this year we are forecasting a market of 570 million 5G devices in the world. This is also achieved because the price drops precipitously. In 2019 we predicted that the average price of the device was going to reach $484 by 2024. However, last year we lowered the forecasts to $371. It's because the companies that manufacture the chipsets are launching cheaper products," he said.
"While for Latin America the price of $371 is high, globally it is not much more than 20 percent more than the market average. In 3-4 years we will be seeing that device prices will be at the same level as 4G and 3G right now. In some markets there were already entry level 5G equipment at $ 140 launched at the end of last year, "concluded the analyst.
