Seoul, Jun 11 (IANS): Samsung Electronics further strengthened its top position in the Latin America smartphone market in the first quarter of the year, a report showed on Friday, with the launch of new models and aggressive marketing.

The South Korean tech giant accounted for 42.4 percent of smartphone shipments in Latin America in the January-March period, up from 37.9 percent a year ago, according to the latest report from market researcher Counterpoint Research.

"It started 2021 by renewing part of its A-series portfolio," Counterpoint Research said. "It also advertised heavily during the launch of new flagship models -- Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra -- in February. This drove higher sales for all the other lines from this brand."

Samsung was followed by US phone maker Motorola with 21.8 percent and China's Xiaomi with 8.4 percent.

LG Electronics, which announced its exit from the mobile business by the end of July, was ranked as the fourth-largest vendor with a 5.8 percent market share.

The report showed smartphone shipments in Latin America surged by 22.2 percent on-year in the first quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

Among major countries, Argentina saw the biggest on-year growth with 113 percent, followed by Peru with 51 percent.

"The competition fueled by Samsung and Motorola launching refreshed models and new Chinese OEMs entering the region drove the market growth," it added.