IDC sees continuing decline in PDA market
690503
If a handheld device doesn't have voice capabilities, a growing number of users around the world aren't interested, according to IDC. For the third straight quarter, shipments of handheld devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) fell as some prominent vendors decided to pull back from the market, IDC said Wednesday.
476186
Ziff Davis - Mobile computing pioneer Andrew Seybold says PDA users "will pay the freight" to keep Wi-Fi networks in business. He also weighs in on other wireless trends at the CTIA Wireless show in San Francisco.
603332
Two weeks ago Reuters released an article suggesting that the PC industry was on the decline. The story referenced a report from technology research company Gartner, which had previously
510043
For the third consecutive quarter, shipments of handheld devices, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), have declined, according to a study by IDC.
351150
Mobile chip makes inroads as prices drop and Intel de-emphasizes clock speed.
298491
High street and shopping mall retail chain Dixons Group, the UK&#39;s largest consumer electronics and equipment retailer, has warned that sales and profits have waned in the last quarter.
87512
Few service providers are stepping forward to assist businesses with mobile services, according to an IDC survey.
425733
Trade group says orders were down 5% from July after almost a year of growth, sees trend continuing. SAN FRANCISCO  - North American semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers reported that orders
494551
Analysts at IDC predict annual growth in mobile phone sales will drop below 10 percent this year, casting doubt on Nokia's more upbeat outlook for 2008.
525175
Global microchip sales will grow  by only 1.8 percent this year, much slower than an earlier  projection of a 10 percent increase, as prices in key markets  tumble, an industry group said on Wednesday.
298295
The global market for handheld devices continues to dwindle, according to data released by IDC this week. The industry has recorded a year-over-year fall for the third successive quarter, the researcher said.
595549
JAPANESE GIANT Sharp has pulled the plug on its Linux-based PDAs in the United States as no-one seems to want them. The company said that it will continue to sell them in Japan where they sell like hot cakes
506302
(InfoWorld) - Even though major vendors have shifted their focus to expensive and profitable smartphones, shipments of PDAs jumped nearly 40 percent in the first quarter of 2007, according to a new survey. The result came from higher-than-expected customer demand for devices with GPS navigation and low-cost e-mail functions, according to a Gartner study released Tuesday. In recent quarters, hardware vendors like Research in Motion (RIM) and Palm have begun to move their product lines from PDAs to smartphones. That strategy took its toll in the first quarter with RIM shipping 0.2 percent fewer units than last year and Palm dropping out of the top five in market share. The vendors say that is exactly the result they wanted to see. In a quarterly earnings report in March, Palm said smartphone revenue rose from 28 percent in the third quarter of 2004 to 86 percent in the third fiscal quarter of 2007. Despite Palm's stance, other vendors still see an opportunity in PDAs. Mio Technology had a 162 percent rise in PDA shipments in the first quarter with particularly strong sales of its GPS-enabled car-navigation units in southern European countries, according to Gartner. Drivers there love GPS because they frequently cross borders on twisty roads marked in foreign tongues, said Gartner analyst Todd Kort. SamsungÂ followed a different path to PDA success, rising from 2,150 shipments last year to 451,000 units shipped in the first quarter of 2007 thanks to a strong marketing campaign for its BlackJack wireless e-mail device by Cingular Wireless. Mobile e-mail capability is attracting many companies and consumers to buy new handsets like the BlackJack and Motorola Q, Kort said. "The market is moving very strongly with wireless e-mail," Kort said. "That and GPS are the biggest drivers, compared to the old PDA stuff that drove the market five or six years ago, the contact lists and calendars that are available on almost any device now." Overall, the PDA market reached 5.1 million units shipped in the first quarter, up 39.7 percent over the same quarter last year, according to the Gartner study. RIM held onto its top position with 18.1 percent market share, topping Mio with 11.1 percent, Samsung with 8.8 percent, Sharp with 8.5 percent, and Nokia with 6.2 percent. As a measure of RIM's effort to shift its product line to smartphones, its lead of 7 percentage points was down sharply from 18.5 percentage points in the same quarter last year. Another effect of the decision by RIM and Palm to downplay the PDA market was to open the door for Microsoft to buttress its leading position in handset operating systems. Microsoft shipped 3.2 million units of Windows CE in the first quarter, a rise of 64.4 percent over the same time last year. Meanwhile, the RIM, Palm, and Linux OSes all lost share in that same year-over-year comparison, Gartner said. Windows CE led the PDA market with 62.1 percent market share, towering over the RIM OS at 18.1 percent, Palm OS at 6.1, Symbian at 5.6 percent, and Linux at 0.7 percent. Gartner defines a PDA as a data-first, voice-second device designed for use with both hands. That family does not include devices such as Palm's Treo 750 and the BlackBerry 8100 family, but does include cellular PDAs like the BlackBerry 8700. Nevertheless, despite Gartner's upbeat report on PDAs, other industry observers stress that handheld devices without any phone capabilities at all are losing the interest of users. IDC, for example, tracks what they call handheld devices, defined as pocket-sized computers that may have Internet access and text messaging, but do not support telephony. IDC sees evidence of a shift away from these types of PDAs, illustrated by Dell's decision to stop selling handheld devices entirely, according to IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. As consumer interest swings quickly from simple handsets to feature-rich smartphones, the first quarter of 2007 marked the 13th consecutive quarter of decline in shipments of PDAs with no telephone abilities, Llamas said.
632801
Worldwide shipments of personal digital assistants declined for the third straight year, according to a new report.
571994
(InfoWorld) - Research in Motion held onto its spot as the world's largest PDA vendor thanks to swelling demand for wireless e-mail, according to a market report released Tuesday. RIM shipped more than 1.8 million BlackBerry handhelds in the fourth quarter, pushing its total 2006 PDA shipments up 10 percent over last year to 3.5 million, according to Gartner. Despite its success, RIM's shipments grew more slowly than the overall market rate of 18.4 percent and much more slowly than smaller competitors like Mio Technology, up 112.1 percent on sales of its global positioning system-enabled devices, and Sharp, up 166.2 percent on sales of its Sidekick. The biggest losers in the industry were Palm, whose PDA shipments dropped 29 percent, and Hewlett-Packard, which dropped 24.1 percent. RIM still dominates the industry with 19.8 percent market share, but the other four vendors are now locked in a tight race, all claiming shipments between 1.4 million and 1.9 million units. Palm ranks second with 11.1 percent share, followed by HP with 9.7 percent, Mio with 8.5 percent, and Sharp with 8 percent. One reason for the shift is that RIM has been migrating its product mix from PDAs to smartphones, lead by the success of its BlackBerry Pearl, Gartner analyst Todd Kort said in the report. That trend applies to the entire market, too, as PDA vendors included cellular connectivity in 60 percent of their products in 2006, up from 47 percent in 2005. Gartner defines a PDA as a data-centric device that may offer voice communication but focuses on features like instant on/off and synchronizing files with a PC. The segment includes cellular PDAs, such as RIM's BlackBerry 87xx, but excludes smartphones, such as the BlackBerry 81xx and Palm's Treo 750. Inside those PDAs, Microsoft's Windows CE was both the most popular OS and the fastest growing. Designers used Windows CE in 56.1 percent of all PDAs in 2006, an increase of 38.8 percent from 2005. RIM's OS held a distant second place with 19.8 percent of the market, while the Palm OS lost nearly one-third of its platforms and held onto just 11.7 percent share. At the bottom of the market, fourth-place Symbian slumped to 5.4 percent share, and Linux rose to 0.9 percent.
473531
GSM Association says data-roaming price cuts are already falling and that Commission regulation would stifle innovation.
63916
Forgotten Tech Some say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and when you consider the history of the PDA, that statement holds many truths.â¦