Worldwide PDA shipments dropped for the fifth consecutive year in Q1, 2005, according to an IDC report. Meanwhile, the market for mobile phones with PDA-like features continues to surge, with a growing number of PDA vendors shifting resources toward the mobile phone market as a result, IDC says.

IDC reports that the worldwide market for handheld devices (PDAs) experienced its fifth successive quarter of year-over-year decline in the first quarter of 2005, with device shipments decreasing 12.1% year-over-year and falling 30.6% sequentially in 1Q05 to 1.9 million units. In contrast, the worldwide converged mobile device market achieved its third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth exceeding 100%, the analyst firm says, rising 134.6% year-over-year to 8.4 million units despite a sequential drop of 3.3% in the first quarter.

The IDC report notes that a growing number of handheld device vendors continue to shift resources towards the flourishing converged mobile device market, following a trend started by Handspring nearly five years ago. Facing intense competition from converged mobile devices with basic personal information management (PIM) functionality, handheld device vendors are leveraging their core competencies in mobility to bring advanced converged mobile devices to market.

IDC's mobile devices program research analyst David Linsalata said, “The handheld device market is facing stiff competition in saturated markets, while the converged mobile device market offers opportunities for new growth to handheld device and mobile phone vendors alike. Unless handheld device vendors can successfully extend the meaningful use of handheld devices beyond PIM, the opportunity for future growth will remain firmly in the converged mobile device segment of the market.”

The research findings discussed above are from IDC's report, “Worldwide Handheld QView.” Additional findings from the report, including vendor rankings, are available here.

 
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