Asustek Computer CEO Jerry Shen has pointed out that the company is rather cautious about its operations Brazil, which has see high inflation, increasing unemployment and weakening consumption for the past few years.

But its marketing strategy has achieved significant results in the South American country for smartphones and motherboard/graphics card products, all of which continue enjoying strong profits, Shen said, adding the notebook business is seeing a break-even operation.

Because of the financial difficulties, many brand vendors have significantly reduced their investments and sales in Brazil and some others have already left the market.

Lenovo, which acquired Brazil-based consumer electronics vendor CCE in 2012, originally planned to become the largest vendor in Brazil's PC market in three years, but had instead sold CCE in October 2015, showing the difficulties for PC vendors to expand in Brazil via acquisitions.

Because of weakening PC demand, high customs duty and the fact that consumers in the country are mainly price-oriented, most brand vendors are seeing thin profits from their operation in Brazil.

Xiaomi also recently withdrawn its sales team in Brazil and will not release any new smartphone in the country in the short term. Because of the country's complicated customs policies, difficulties to establish a supply chain and consumers' frequently changing demand, Xiaomi's low-price strategy completely failed to achieve results in the country. Samsung Electronics, Huawei and Apple are also seeing similar troubles and are achieving profits far lower than expected.

Asustek currently outsources its smartphone orders to Foxconn Electronics' (Hon Hai Precision Industry) plants in Brazil and the company shipped nearly one million units in 2015. The volume is expected to grow to 1.5-1.8 million units in 2016.

In addition to Brazil, Asustek has also been expanding its reaches in Southeast Asia and India since 2014. The company entered Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia in early 2016 and will expand its partnership with India-based telecom carrier Reliance and will release four new smartphones covering all price segments in the second half of 2016. The lowest-end model is expected to be priced less than INR6,000 (US$90).