Gartner Dataquest Says Worldwide PDA Market Suffers Through a Dismal Year in 2002
Sales Decline As Enterprises Are Slow to Purchase PDAs
SAN JOSE, Calif., January 27, 2003 - The PDA industry suffered through a difficult year as worldwide shipments totaled 12.1 million units in 2002, a 9.1 percent decline from 2001 results, according to preliminary results from Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). Gartner Dataquest analysts said the industry has been impacted by the slow adoption of PDAs by enterprises.
"We estimate that about 70 percent of all PDAs are purchased by consumers and only 30 percent by enterprises," said Todd Kort, principal analyst for Gartner Dataquest's Computing Platforms Worldwide group. "The more lucrative enterprise market has been stagnant because of poor economic conditions and a perception that PDAs are not yet capable of delivering sufficient return on investment. The enterprise market is still another year away from embracing PDAs."
Palm's worldwide PDA shipments declined 12.2 percent in 2002, but it still shipped more than twice as many units as its nearest competitor (see Table 1). Toshiba, which began shipping PDAs in late 2001 in Japan, saw rapid growth as it became the No. 5 vendor worldwide in 2002.
Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PDA Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2002 (Units)
Company
2002 Shipments
2002 Market Share (%)
2001 Shipments
2001 Market Share (%)
Growth (%)
Palm
4,438,730
36.8
5,055,918
38.1
-12.2
Hewlett-Packard
1,628,729
13.5
2,236,667
16.9
-27.2
Sony
1,332,666
11.0
506,358
3.8
163.2
Handspring
698,228
5.8
1,371,028
10.3
-49.1
Toshiba
450,298
3.7
12,000
0.1
3,652.5
Casio
396,890
3.3
514,594
3.9
-22.9
RIM
272,450
2.3
391,996
3.0
-30.5
Nokia
267,310
2.2
320,000
2.4
-16.5
Hi-Tech Wealth
257,378
2.1
203,090
1.5
26.7
Sharp
226,300
1.9
265,300
2.0
-14.7
Others
2,097,396
17.4
2,392,571
18.0
-12.3
Total
12,066,375
100.0
13,269,522
100.0
-9.1
Note: Does not include smart phones such as Handspring Treo 300.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (January 2003)
In the U.S. market, Sony jumped from the No. 6 position in 2001 to the No. 2 position in 2002, as its shipments increased 351.8 percent (see Table 2). Despite a 10.4 percent decline in shipments, Palm maintained about a 1.8 million-unit gap relative to its nearest competitor, Sony.
Table 2
Preliminary U.S. PDA Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2002 (Units)
Company
2002 Shipments
2002 Market Share (%)
2001 Shipments
2001 Market Share (%)
Growth (%)
Palm
2,750,000
46.0
3,068,000
47.5
-10.4
Sony
881,000
14.7
195,000
3.0
351.8
Hewlett-Packard
677,828
11.3
1,236,339
19.1
-45.2
Handspring
520,000
8.7
967,560
15.0
-46.3
Toshiba
236,989
4.0
NA
NA
NA
RIM
196,000
3.3
340,000
5.3
-42.4
Casio
133,000
2.2
272,241
4.2
-51.1
Symbol
121,936
2.0
102,000
1.6
19.5
Sharp
54,000
0.9
23,000
0.4
134.8
Dell
51,000
0.9
NA
NA
NA
Others
351,606
5.9
255,453
4.0
37.6
Total
5,973,359
100.0
6,459,593
100.0
-7.5
NA = Not applicable
Note: Does note include smart phones such as Handspring Treo 300.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (January 2003)
In the PDA operating system market, Palm OS shipments totaled 6.7 million units, which represented 55.2 percent of worldwide shipments. Windows CE totaled 3.1 million units, which accounted for 25.7 percent of all PDA units.
A lack of significant progress in wireless PDA technologies has resulted in some companies waiting to purchase these devices.
"Wireless infrastructure is still immature, and wireless data security issues have not been fully resolved," Kort said. "End users still have too many hassles getting wireless devices properly configured. On top of this, wireless data speeds are typically much less than advertised, and costs per megabyte are relatively high, especially in the United States."
Additional information is available in the Gartner Dataquest Perspective "Worldwide PDA Market Declined 9.1 Percent in 2002." The report shows how top-tier PDA vendors performed in 2002, and it also provides a breakout for the fourth quarter of 2002 as well. This research can be purchased on the Internet at www.gartner.com.
Gartner Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors of the global information technology industry.
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