Sale of mobile phones in Brazil drops 17% in first half

The sale of cell phones in Brazil fell 17% in the first half, to 27.4 million units, according to the Brazilian Association of electrical and Electronics Industry (Abinee). The numbers represent the appliances sold by manufacturers to distributors and retailers.
The performance in the period was impacted by shrinkage of 78% in sales of conventional equipment, the ' feature phones ', which peaked at 2 million units. In the same period last year, were 9.3 million. In the second quarter, sales of this type of device have been of only 800 thousand units.
Most of the demand has been met by the Positivo Informática. With the Alcatel One Touch Chinese having left the market, the Brazilian company saw its sales grow 422 percent to 313.3 thousand units in the first half.
Already in smartphones, which showed a drop in sales of 13% in the second quarter, performance for the semester was positive. Sales rose 8 percent in the period, to 25.4 million units. Appliances accounted for 93% of the total market.