Global PDA sales rise 12%

Worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments totalled 2.75 million units in the second quarter of 2004, a 12% increase from the same period last year, says international research firm Gartner.

Gartner says the year-over-year growth rate broke a string of 10 consecutive quarterly shipment declines.

"The industry`s growth is largely attributed to the significant increase in Research in Motion`s (RIM`s) BlackBerry shipments. RIM`s shipments increased 289% in the second quarter of 2004," Gartner reports.

RIM is a Canadian company that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards.

"The company`s success was driven by the BlackBerry`s e-mail capabilities, as well as a growing number of third-party applications and wireless data services that are becoming available to BlackBerry users," Gartner says.

Hewlett-Packard`s PDA shipments increased 38.9% in the second quarter, although most of its models were about one year old.

Gartner analysts say these results demonstrate the strong reputation the HP iPAQ has cultivated within many large organisations. HP did well in Europe because of the success in GPS modules and the strong adoption of Bluetooth.

[TABLE]"The second quarter results show a continuing shift from what has been a predominantly consumer market to a market in which more than one-third of all PDA purchases are made by organisations," says Todd Kort, principal analyst in Gartner`s Computing Platforms Worldwide group.

Palm OS continued to lead the market in terms of operating systems with a worldwide market share of 41.7%. However, its market share was down from the second quarter of 2003 when it accounted for 51% of the market.

Windows CE`s market share in the second quarter of 2004 reached 36.6%, up slightly from 36.3% the same period last year.

RIM`s share of the PDA OS market increased to 18.6%, up from 5.3% in the second quarter of 2003.

With the increased sales in the business market, Gartner analysts say the worldwide PDA market is positioned for low single-digit growth in 2004. PDA shipments are projected to approach 12 million units this year.

"Smartphones will continue to impact the PDA market. However, the high prices of smartphones and their relative immaturity will prevent a rapid shift from PDAs," Kort says.

"Instead, the vast majority of smartphone sales in the next year will be to individuals upgrading their cellphones. The PalmOne Treo is one of the few exceptions."