The portable messaging services market is on a steep growth curve, with international research firms reporting surges in shipments of devices. SA is following the international trends in terms of services, although device sales here are slower.
[TABLE]International research firm Gartner says worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments grew by 25% to 3.4 million units in the first quarter of this year - the strongest three months ever experienced by the industry.
Rival research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) says in the last quarter of 2004, 178.2 million US subscribers contributed $810 million (R4.779 billion) of the $1.6 billion worth of revenue from all data services.
Leon Perlman, chairman of the Wireless Application Service Providers Association, says SA is in line with Europe as data services over the GSM network accounts for more than half of the data, but PDA penetration is far behind that of the US and Europe.
"SMS and MMS are growing in importance in the US, while it is already big in this country. PDA sales have a long way to go here and may not even reach the level of penetration seen in the US as cellphones become more ubiquitous," he says.
Two of SA`s three cellular network operators launched BlackBerry offerings this year. The rate of adoption by the local market is as yet unknown.
Gartner says the average selling price (ASP) of PDAs increased 15% in the first quarter of 2005 compared to the first quarter of 2004. The ASP was $406 (R2 000), which is the highest since Gartner began ASP estimates in 2000. Analysts attributed the increased prices to the popularity of high-end wireless models.
"PDAs with integrated wireless local area network or cellular capabilities accounted for approximately 55% of all PDAs shipped in the first quarter of 2005," says Todd Kort, principal analyst in Gartner`s Computing Platforms Worldwide Group.
Gartner says Research in Motion`s BlackBerry shipments grew 75.6% in the first quarter, as the company became the top ranked vendor in worldwide PDA shipments. PalmOne PDA shipments declined 26.3% and its market share fell to 18%, the lowest since it entered the market in 1996. Nokia`s re-entry into the wireless PDA market with the 9300 and 9500 models enabled it to move into fourth position.
Microsoft has become the top PDA operating system (OS), as it accounted for 46% of worldwide shipments. Research in Motion assumed second position, as Palm OS slipped to third, due to Palm OS shipments declining 38.8%.
"We expect that PalmOne will add other operating systems and set more of its own direction, while PalmSource is redirecting itself toward Linux and smartphones," Kort says.
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