Despite seasonal increases posted by several vendors during Q4, the market for non-phone handheld devices continued its downward trend throughout 2006, IDC reports. Only 5.5 million units shipped during 2006, 28.5 percent less than in 2005, while Q4 sank a whopping 35.9 percent from Q4-05, to 1.5 million units.

IDC's definition of “handheld devices,” it should be noted, includes units that provide wireless capabilities, such as Internet access and text communication, but excludes “converged devices” with integrated telephony functions. Interestingly, such devices have just been relegated to the category of “Classic” in Microsoft's newly unveiled Windows Mobile 6 nomenclature.

Apparently, non-phone handhelds — aka PDAs (personal digital assistants) — are being crowded out of the market by increasingly sophisticated cellphones, particularly those in the smartphone category. Ramon Llamas, a research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team, stated that “The handheld devices market is under intense pressure from networked mobile devices. Features found on handheld devices, including personal information management (PIM) functionality, multimedia, and Bluetooth connectivity have also been included on converged mobile devices (commonly known as smartphones) and high-end phones.”

Vendor Rankings

IDC's top-five vendor rankings for the fourth quarter and full year 2006, including shipments and market share percents, are shown in the following two tables.

Top Five Handheld Device Vendors — 4Q 2006 (Preliminary)

Vendor	Shipments	Market Share	Shipments	Market Share	Y/Y Growth
Palm	582,000	39.8%	1,019,464	44.7%	-42.9%
HP	364,000	24.9%	465,000	20.4%	-21.7%
Mio	129,027	8.8%	76,305	3.3%	69.1%
Dell	110,400	7.6%	178,500	7.8%	-38.2%
Acer	52,000	3.6%	124,114	5.4%	-58.1%
Others	223,467	15.3%	414,856	18.2%	-46.1%
TOTAL	1,460,894	100.0%	2,278,239	100.0%	-35.9%

(Source: IDC Worldwide Handheld QView, February 8, 2007)

Top Five Handheld Device Vendors — Full Year 2006 (Preliminary)

Vendor	Shipments	Market Share	Shipments	Market Share	Y/Y Growth
Palm	1,982,000	36.3%	2,763,139	36.1%	-28.3%
HP	1,210,000	22.1%	1,739,365	22.7%	-30.4%
Dell	490,000	9.0%	735,929	9.6%	-33.4%
Mio	442,893	8.1%	342,664	4.5%	29.2%
Sharp	297,500	5.4%	79,181	1.0%	275.7%
Others	1,044,094	19.1%	1,986,360	26.0%	-47.4%
TOTAL	5,466,487	100.0%	7,646,638	100.0%	-28.5%

(Source: IDC Worldwide Handheld QView, February 8, 2007)

IDC expects the downward trend to continue in 2007, it said.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.