Windows Phone Thoughts: What Does the Future Hold for Your PDA?

"The continued evolution of mobile phones and growing sophistication of converged mobile devices means a bleak future for traditional personal digital assistants, market research firm IDC predicts. "From mobile phones to converged mobile devices, which combine the data capabilities of PDAs with the voice communication capabilities of mobile phones, competing device types will draw buyers away from traditional handheld devices," the firm notes in a new report, "Worldwide Smart Handheld Devices Forecast and Analysis, 2003-2007." According to the firm's prognostications, this year the worldwide handheld device industry will decline by 8.4 percent to 11.35 million units, its second straight year of decline."

Does this surprise anyone? It doesn't surprise me - converged devices offer many advantages, although I know many Pocket PC Thoughts readers are fans of the "two device solution". I see more phones taking on PDA-like characteristics (a la Smartphone) rather than huge numbers of PDAs suddenly becoming phones. We're just now edging into the true second generation of these devices, so while there's still a lot to figure out in terms of usability, I think the day that every Pocket PC is also a phone or a wireless device of some sort is quickly approaching. What do you think?