Americas Market Perspective / Vol. 8, Issue 17, June Edition

For most countries in the region, Mother’s Day is an important commercial sales event in the overall telecom market, but the date is particularly strategic in the handset market. Following the annual tradition in the months of April and May (except for a few exceptions, such as Argentina, where Mother’s Day falls in September), mobile players across the region have launched Mother’s Day campaigns featuring aggressive handset promotions and, in some cases, the launch of new handset models. Pyramid Research concludes that Mother’s Day is the biggest sales event in the first half of the year, with 2008 being no exception, second only to year-end holidays in terms of overall unit volume and revenue. Mother’s Day is the first big battle for handset vendors to increase market share, and in most cases handset models promoted in these campaigns become top sellers for the year. This year, operators took advantage of the promotional season to push multimedia phones.