Samsung Electronics Co. was the top smartphone vendor in Chile in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, although its market share declined after its rivals grew sharply in the South American nation.

The South Korean tech titan represented 42.1 percent of the Chilean smartphone market in the January-March period after its shipments jumped 63 percent on-year to a record 1.2 million units, according to the latest report from market researcher Strategy Analytics.

"Samsung's smartphone market share in Chile remains relatively stable for now, around the 42 percent level," Woody Oh, a director at Strategy Analytics, said. "Samsung has extensive retail presence in Chile and its midrange A series models are wildly popular."

However, Samsung's first-quarter market share was down from 44.1 percent a year earlier as other brands bulked up their presence with robust sales.

Runner-up Lenovo-Motorola's market share increased to 17.2 percent from 11.8 percent a year ago after its smartphone shipments soared 150 percent on-year to 500,000 units in the first quarter.

Xiaomi was the best performer in the first quarter as its market share surged to 15.5 percent from 2.4 percent a year earlier to grab the third spot. The Chinese maker saw its smartphone shipments skyrocketing 1,024 percent on-year to 500,000 units in the first three months of 2021.

"Xiaomi is Chile's fastest-growing smartphone brand," Rajeev Nair, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said. "If current growth trends continue, Xiaomi will overtake Lenovo-Motorola to become Chile's second-largest smartphone brand before the end of 2021."

Chile's smartphone market, the third largest in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico, grew 71 percent on-year to reach a record 2.9 million units in the first quarter due to "a buoyant economy, strong exports, and a perceived high vaccination rate," Strategy Analytics said. (Yonhap)