HP Plans More iPaqs As PDAs Become Smartphones

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 13 August 2007

Hewlett-Packard is not giving up on the PDA market and has plans to launch a whole new range of iPAQ-series devices before the end of the year. However, it conitunes to shift its product focus to smarter devices. According to Taiwan-based news site DigiTimes the range includes PDAs, PNDs and 3G GPS PDAs according to unnamed sources. The report says HP has been talking to OEM manufacturers in Taiwan and Quanta Computer, Inventec Appliances and Foxconn International Holdings are likely to get orders to make the devices. High Tech Computer (HTC), which is now actively pursuing its own brand, Quanta and LG Electronics have been recipients of HPs order book in the past, although Foxconn was added this year when it won a contract to produce the iPAQ 510 PDA phones, according to DigiTimes. The report says HTC branded push will likely see it miss out on this round of contracts meaning more for Quanta, FIH or Inventec. Suggestions are that the company could establish long-term contracts with suppliers for products designated for particular segments. Rumours also suggest HP, in cooperation with Verizon could be looking to launch CDMA-enabledPDA phones in the US and focus on low-cost PDAs and PNDs in the China market. The report comes as the handheld device market continues to decline according to IDC Worldwide Handheld QView, numbers. IDC classes pen and keyboard-based handhelds that do not have telephony functionality in this category and says that despite the departure of PC company, Dell from the competitive mix, things are not doingso well for other vendors. IDC says a total of 720,000 units shipped during the second quarter of 2007, a 43.5% decrease from the same quarter one year ago and a 21.8% decrease from the previous quarter. This marked the second consecutive quarter in which total worldwide shipments have not crested above the million unit mark. The researcher says that Dell quiet withdrawal from this market enabled its competitors to pick up a little more business, but overall the year-over-year decline demonstrates the shift to smartphones by both vendors and consumers. "The departure of a major player allows other vendors to fill the gap and increase shipments. But the market as a whole is still contracting and other vendors, with fewer resources and less distribution, may be forced to withdraw from the market altogether," says Ramon Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. "With double-digit negative growth continuing to characterize the market, IDC expects the handheld device market to contract further before it reaches a stable point." "Despite the ongoing decline, there continues to be a small but nonetheless significant demand for these devices," continues Llamas. "To drive ongoing demand, vendors have introduced a number of devices that offer features like multimedia, GPS, and wireless, but not cellular, connectivity. But even the inclusion of these new features have not stemmed the decline in shipments. Stability has yet to arrive." Palm continued to dominate the market reporting numbers nearly double its nearest competitor. In fact, Palm actually increased shipments between first and second quarter after the three consecutive quarters of decline. That's not to say it was growing. Shipments over the year before numbers were in decline 33.2 per cent. HP posted both sequential and year-on-year declines but was happy with the result pointing to Dells departure from the business. IDC says HP has also been experimenting with optimised handheld devices, including theiPAQ rx 4240 for multimedia and the iPAQ rx 5915 for GPS. Both devices carried a higher price point compared to simple handheld devices, but still moved the handheld devices in a new direction. Relative newcomer, Mio, posted its fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth, bucking the general trend of the industry. The popularity of its P550, P350, and A201 devices, all of which feature a GPS receiver, spreading beyond its home territory of Asia/Pacific and into nearby Europe and Japan. Only recently has the company begun targeting North America. Of course, Dell still featured with its Axim devices though shipments decreased 81.8% from the same quarter a year ago. Dell managed to remain among the top five vendors, but only barely as a number of smaller, regional vendors came within range of Dell's volumes for the period. Thanks to shipments into Western Europe, Fujitsu-Siemens took fifth place in the second quarter. While the company has offered both simple devices, like its C Series, and GPS and multimedia-enabled devices, like its N100 Series, it also recently began offering a competing converged mobile device with its with its T Series device, says IDC. Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Handheld Device Market, Second Quarter 2007 Vendor 2Q07 Shipments 2Q07 Market Share 2Q06 Shipments 2Q06 Market Share 2Q07/2Q06 Change 1. Palm 317,300 44.1% 475,000 37.6% -33.2% 2. HP 168,800 23.5% 260,000 20.6% -35.1% 3. Mio 97,691 13.6% 91,700 7.3% 6.5% 4. Dell 23,975 3.3% 132,050 10.4% -81.8% 5. Fujitsu Siemens Computers 21,482 3.0% 28,529 2.3% -24.7% Others 89,682 12.5% 277,404 21.9% -67.7% Total 718,930 100.0% 1,264,683 100.0% -43.2% Source IDC Related news items Next-Gen 3G RAZR DownUnder -24/09/2007 Nokia E51: Smarter Than It Looks -19/09/2007 Telstra Launches Another Coonan Attack -12/09/2007 Semi-Rugged With Grunt -05/09/2007 Mobile Speakerphone From Jabra -30/08/2007 Newer news items Fujitsu Siemens To Give Up On PDAs -13/08/2007 Older news items Motorola Mobile Office Has Barcode Reader -02/05/2007 Q1 #2 -19/03/2007 HP Will Also Offer Draft n Notebooks -09/11/2006 Hard Times Are The Only Increase For PDA Makers -07/08/2006 O2 Beefs Up XDA Atom For Business Users -28/06/2006 Tag This Now: