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Palm, RIM strong despite Q2 PDA global sales dip
Trend-bucking growth
World PDA shipments fell 7.3 per cent year on year during Q2 - a traditionally slow period - but the quarter brought impressive gains for Palm and Research in Motion, market watcher Gartner said today.
The overall decline in sales mirrors IDC's findings, published last month. While the two researchers disagree on exact figures, the trends they highlight are identical.
Palm OS-based PDAs accounted for 51.4 per cent of the devices shipped around the world in Q2; Pocket PC took 35.9 per cent of the market. During the quarter, end users spent $827 million on PDAs, of which Palm and its licensees took 41 per cent, compared to the 47.7 per cent taken by Pocket PC vendors. The difference in revenue and unit shipment shares is all down the higher prices that Pocket PC devices command, said Gartner.
Palm bucked the downward sales trend with a 15.3 per cent increase in sales year on year, a feat achieved only by RIM, which notched up growth of 134.3 per cent. Dell stormed into the top five vendors group, going from nowhere to a 5.3 per cent share of the market. HP and Sony both experienced declines, of 10.3 per cent and a mere one per cent, respectively. HP is expected to regain sales this quarter, as buyers who delayed their purchase for the release of Windows Mobile 2003 spend their savings.
The real losers were all the other vendors - collectively they shipped 43.5 per cent few units in Q2 2003 than Q2 2002.
Palm's market lead - now at 38 per cent - was driven by strong sales of the consumer-friendly Zire 71. ®
| Worldwide PDA vendors | ||||||
| Rank | Vendor | Q2 2003
shipments |
Q2 2003
market share |
Q2 2002
shipments |
Q2 2002
market share |
Growth |
| 1 | Palm | 943,807 | 38% | 818,800 | 30.5% | 15.3% |
| 2 | HP | 381,298 | 15.3% | 424,950 | 15.9% | -10.3% |
| 3 | Sony | 272,638 | 11% | 275,315 | 10.3% | -1% |
| 4 | Dell | 132,417 | 5.3% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 5 | RIM | 131,100 | 5.3% | 55,950 | 2.1% | 134.3% |
| Others | 2624,557 | 25.1% | 1,105,646 | 41.2% | -43.5% | |
| Total | 2,485,817 | 100% | 2,680,661 | 100% | -7.3% | |
| Source: Gartner | ||||||
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