PocketPC sales slide

Palm does better

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Personal, 5th November 2001 11:48 GMT

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play

Palm retained its lead in the worldwide PDA arena last quarter as PocketPC's share of the business fell significantly and the market as a whole dipped on the previous quarter.

According to market watcher Gartner Dataquest, third-quarter global PDA shipments fell by just under ten per cent, from 2.81 million units in Q2 to 2.54 million.

Palm's share of that total dipped to 29.7 per cent - some 745,000 units worldwide - down from 31.7 per cent in Q2. Palm OS licensee Handspring took 14 per cent of the market, a market trend-breaking increase on the 11 per cent it held during the previous quarter. The company then shipped 300,000 units; during Q3 it shipped 352,000 PDAs.

By contrast, Compaq shipped 185,000 iPaqs - down from 300,000 in Q2 - for a marketshare of 7.3 per cent. Casio grabbed 5.6 per cent. Like Handspring, it shipped more devices in Q3 (145,000) than Q2 (94,000), although the indications are that most were less expensive electronic organisers, rather than PocketPC products. Hewlett-Packard shipped 135,000 machines and won 5.3 per cent of the market. It shipped 193,000 units in Q2.

PocketPC devices collectively accounted for just 18 per cent of the PDA market, rather less than the 30 per cent in shipped in Q2. As per the similar decline noted last week in Europe's Q3 PDA shipments, Gartner Dataquest blames the steep decline on buyers deciding to wait for the PocketPC 2002 upgrade in this quarter.

It forecasts PDA shipments will grow to between 2.8 million and 2.9 million this year. ®

Euro PDA shipments fell 34.5% in Q3

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play