This year, a rather atypical scenario was set for the technology industry, which added to the rise of dollar, the sharp rise in inflation and high interest rates.
As part of this process, the pockets came out badly beaten. According to the consultant Ivenómica, the loss of purchasing power this year will be 11% on average, with regions such as the Argentine North with collapses of 17%.
Against this picture, Argentines became much more selective when it came to consuming electronics. And, as a result, all companies in the sector had to recalculate their plans.
And this involves all the categories. In the case of televisions, after the World Cup in Russia, retailers and manufacturers in Tierra del Fuego are warning of sharp falls.
Regarding the celphone market, everything indicates that this year will end up deepening a contraction (600,000 less manufactured units are projected in the south of the country).
Notebooks are a peculiar case; besides the fact that after the drop in import taxes came they started to come 100% from abroad, the devaluation caused a sharp price spike, a leap that led to a collapse in the entry of equipment into the country.
Despite all the ups and downs that the economy gave to consumption, technology business is still very juicy, especially after the remnants that remained of the World Cup, which triggered TV demand between January and May.
According to data accessed by iProUP, consumer electronics brands moved about US $ 2,100 million during the first seven months of the year.
This is the turnover for that period registered by both the companies that produce equipment in Tierra del Fuego and the importers. That is, it does not account for the profit margins of distributors, wholesalers and retail chains that sell to the public. So the overall figure is higher.
From that number, almost US $ 1 billion corresponded to cell phones, another US $ 855 million was for the television business, while the remaining US $ 250 million was explained by notebooks and tablets.
While this figure implied a 28% growth compared to the January-July 2017 period, the reality is that this was mainly explained by the "Russia effect", which operated on the demand for LED TVs.
In volumes, Tierra del Fuego and other origins brought to the commercial circuit some 2.9 million LED equipment, which implied a jump amount, of the order of 68%. However, there are already strong symptoms of fatigue.
The cellphone market, meanwhile, is not emerging unscathed from the crisis: in quantities, the equipment income was reduced by 0.5% during the first seven months. And although it seems a low bounded, June and July already showed a flow totally amesetado. And August and September, according to previous figures, did not reverse the trend.
Regarding notebooks, the collapse of retail sales is beginning to affect imports: in seven months volumes fell 4% but with a very weak month of July and much more negative prospects for the rest of the year.
"The consumer electronics sector is suffering a contraction, the situation is bad for the whole chain: for manufacturers and for retail, and the most worrying thing is that this is deepening," they explained to iProUP from the consulting firm GfK.
Ranking: ups and downs
According to market data that this medium accessed, very few smartphone manufacturers could avoid the crisis.
Such was the case of Samsung, which although positioned in first place, suffered a significant drop of almost 11% in the entry of equipment to the commercial circuit.
Put into figures, it represented some 371,000 fewer telephones than in the first seven months of 2017.
Another mark with very bad performance was Huawei: to enter more than 407,000 units until July of last year, now barely reached 213,000, with a collapse of its operation of the order of 47%.
Among those that grew the most, although in general they show more modest volumes, they are BLU, which was placed in the 10th position of the most moving in quantities: in that same period it entered more than 49,000 units, showing a jump of 366%.
This push was the result of Newsan recently signing an exclusive import agreement with this brand, in addition to the distribution and technical support.
It also improved Apple's presence in the Argentine market, although the bulk of the phones that are marketed with that logo continue to enter via tourism or, directly, by contraband.
Up to July, 83,300 iPhones had entered the country with formal import shipments, marking an interannual jump of 190%.
Next, the ranking with the 15 most popular cell phone brands sold to cell phone operators and retailers:
One particularity is that, especially at the start of the year, several low cost brands appeared, such as Panacom, Maxwest, Quantum, Datsun, Sansei or Zylan, to name just a few.
Televisions
The rage for the World Cup, just before the dollar rallied and higher interest rates, made it possible for almost all brands to get on the wave.
Samsung was in the first place, but with a variation rate of 44% in volumes, that is, 24 points below the total growth of the segment.
The podium was also positioned Philips, with more than 373,000 equipment entered the commercial circuit, followed by LG.
Within the Top 15, the only one that exhibited negative variation rates was Ken Brown, with a contraction of 6%.
In dialogue with iProUP, Edgardo Folla, Marketing Director of Philips TV, said that "2018 started very well, even surpassing our expectations at a volume level, with a replacement for larger screens and technological renewal, where many consumers turned to 4K and UHD, in search of the latest in image quality. "
In parallel, the attention generated by Messi in the run up to the start of the Russian tournament resulted in the proliferation of new "low cost" players, who entered the Argentine market with cheaper equipment. Quantic, Kodak, Oyility, Dalton and Wins are examples of this trend.
Looking ahead to next year, Folla anticipated that "it will be highly competitive, all the players will work hard to maintain or gain some market share points." The screen mix will be returning a bit to normal, with more equipment sold than 43. and 32 inches. "
Laptops
Undoubtedly, those who are most feeling the end of the "tail wind" that benefited the technology market are those linked to the IT segment, mainly due to the very poor performance that notebooks are exhibiting at the retail level.
Last July, consumers bought just 20,000 units, which implied a 65% collapse compared to July 2017.
To have a reference, it was the weakest figure in 20 months. In addition, he contrasted with the 75,000 teams that Argentines bought in May, thanks to the Hot Sale.
When analyzing the performance of the main brands, there are ups and downs: between January and July, the three leaders in terms of imports were Lenovo, HP and Dell, with growth rates that went from 23% to 60%.
Among those who fell the most are Noblex (-97%), Acer (-58%), Exo (-50%) and Positivo BGH (-28%).
As a counterpart, interesting is the case of Apple in Argentina: it ranked 12th in volumes but, due to the high value of the equipment, in turnover it was in the fifth step.
Within the category of laptops, worse is the situation of the tablets, whose commercialization comes in clear decline in the country.
In volumes, Admiral is positioned as number one, with 112,000 imported equipment, followed by Next and X View.
However, of the 15 first players that have a presence in the market, 10 showed falls. And very strong. Positive BGH, Kanji, Philco, Alcatel, AVH and Exo, for example, experienced crashes of more than 40%.
Samsung´s case is striking, which in the first seven months of July 2017 ranked third in this segment but this year saw its participation plummeted to the point that it was relegated to 12th place, after suffering a collapse of more than 65% in the amount of equipment entered.
Clear that the figures of the technological market reflected in the entrance of merchandise to the circuit of consumption still do not reflect the impact of the crisis and of the jump of the dollar.
"In July we already noticed a drop in purchase orders by retail and in August we suffered a greater decline, which, at a time when an important stock was accumulated, forced us to take a lot of foot off the accelerator," says an entrepreneur. from Tierra del Fuego who asked for strict off the record.
In this context, the consulting firm GfK warns that, until the purchasing power is recovered and interest rates are not reduced, the business will continue to contract. Even when? According to the scenario that companies in the sector handle, if there is no change that stimulates consumption, we will have to wait until the end of the first half of next year.
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2021/07/20962_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2019/04/3476_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2019/06/4553_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2024/07/39584_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2024/06/39148_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/png/2023/10/36688_landscape.png)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2025/07/43338_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2023/02/33472_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2020/07/11076_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2025/07/43388_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2024/10/40547_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2023/01/33069_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2025/07/43384_landscape.jpg)
:quality(85):max_bytes(102400)/https://assets.iproup.com/assets/jpg/2020/12/15171_landscape.jpg)