Monday, November 12, 2007
PDA Market On Its Last Legs?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "NEWS" @ 08:00 AM
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS20947607
"The worldwide handheld device market posted its fifteenth consecutive quarter of decline in shipments, signaling either vendor intent to scale back production or exit from market entirely, or both. According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, vendors shipped 728,894 handheld devices in 3Q07, approximately 1.5% more than the previous quarter but 39.3% less from the same quarter a year ago. "The handheld device market has been under constant pressure, with mobile phones and converged mobile devices appropriating many of the handheld's salient attributes," says Ramon T. Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Device Technology and Trends team. "Handheld product portfolios have suffered as vendors have reallocated their production resources."
Palm remained the number 1 PDA manufacturer, but it is relying on its aged Z22, TX (both launched in Oct 2005) and T-E2 (April 2005) lines. HP, the number 2 manufacturer has more updated versions and even has some new devices coming out this fall that aren't converged devices. Regardless, these sales numbers pale in comparison to devices like Palm's Treo and the myriad of devices HTC is pumping out, most of which are available through various cell phone carriers worldwide.
I suspect it won't be but a few more quarters when the non-cellular PDA will be a thing of the past, unless these features are embedded in a device that has some other primary function, like the Apple iPod Touch, a device considered an MP3 player first with some PIM functions built in.
"The worldwide handheld device market posted its fifteenth consecutive quarter of decline in shipments, signaling either vendor intent to scale back production or exit from market entirely, or both. According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, vendors shipped 728,894 handheld devices in 3Q07, approximately 1.5% more than the previous quarter but 39.3% less from the same quarter a year ago. "The handheld device market has been under constant pressure, with mobile phones and converged mobile devices appropriating many of the handheld's salient attributes," says Ramon T. Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Device Technology and Trends team. "Handheld product portfolios have suffered as vendors have reallocated their production resources."
Palm remained the number 1 PDA manufacturer, but it is relying on its aged Z22, TX (both launched in Oct 2005) and T-E2 (April 2005) lines. HP, the number 2 manufacturer has more updated versions and even has some new devices coming out this fall that aren't converged devices. Regardless, these sales numbers pale in comparison to devices like Palm's Treo and the myriad of devices HTC is pumping out, most of which are available through various cell phone carriers worldwide.
I suspect it won't be but a few more quarters when the non-cellular PDA will be a thing of the past, unless these features are embedded in a device that has some other primary function, like the Apple iPod Touch, a device considered an MP3 player first with some PIM functions built in.
