Emerging countries such as Brazil, India and China have been strategic for companies around the globe, specifically in the IT and telecoms sector. When presenting recent financial results, Latin American enterprises reported some interesting perspective on the region, including comments about the continued expansion of Apple’s products into the market.
Apple reported that its Brazilian revenues grew 1,118% over the last year, hitting $900 million. During its fourth fiscal quarter conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted how important countries such as Brazil, Russia and China are to Apple’s strategy. This was the first time the company revealed numbers and talked about Brazil.
Apple recently opened resellers and stores in the region to meet the country’s demand for products. In addition, Foxconn, which currently manufacturers Apple’s iPad device in China, plans to open a manufacturing facility in Brazil. Brazil’s Science and Technology Minister Aloizio Mercadante has said that Foxconn is planning to invest up to $12 billion on two manufacturing facilities in the country.
Swedish equipment supplier Ericsson noted that Latin America sales increased 64% year-over-year and 22% sequentially with growth across all segments. The company said that Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have developed favorably with especially strong growth in Brazil and Nigeria where operators have invested in mobile broadband coverage. Ericsson attributed the result to the fact that Latam operators are investing in mobile broadband coverage as well as GSM to meet increased traffic demands.
On the other end of the scale, the world’s largest cellphone maker, Nokia, saw revenues across its Latin American operations drop 7% year-over-year. Nokia posted $736 million in revenues for the third quarter, which was short of the $1 billion posted during the from second quarter 2011 and than US $788 million in the third quarter 2010.
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