Slump in PDA sales

IDG reports that shipments of personal digital assistants (PDAs) have declined by 11.7% during the first quarter of this year.

Research company International Data Corporation (IDC) has found that the 2.2 million units shipped during the quarter have decreased by 33.1% over the fourth quarter of last year. However, shipments of entry-level PDAs have increased as companies have focused on the low end of the market.

Analysts have been warning PDA vendors for several quarters that consumers have lost their taste for standalone PDAs that manage contacts and calendar information.

"There will always be a handheld market. But going forward, the converged device [smart phone] will generally have a larger market," says David Linsalata, an IDC analyst.

Lower PDA shipment figures have not stopped PalmOne from introducing new colour handhelds to its Zire product line, reports MacCentral.

The company has also reaffirmed its long-term support for the Mac platform.

The Zire 31 features a 160x160 colour display, 16MB of memory and MP3 playback capabilities through an expansion card.

The Zire 72 colour handheld features a built-in 1.2 megapixel camera, which can capture video and shoot still images.

PC World reports that IBM and Stanford University have announced a research group dedicated to spintronics, aiming to create prototype central processing units that complete computations through magnetism.

"We are trying to do something that could be as significant as the launch of the transistor 50 years ago," says Robert Morris, VP of IBM`s personal systems and storage.

Today`s processors use an electrical charge to create on and off states.

A processor based on the principles of spintronics could control the spin (or magnetic orientation) of electrons and create two possible states: up or down.

The result: atomic-size structures that offer enormous computational capabilities while generating very little heat.