|
|
|
PDAs CONTINUE DECLINE: IDC |
|
|
|
Written by Adam Gosling
|
|
Monday, 06 February 2006 |
Despite posting its largest quarterly shipment volume for the year in Q4, research company IDC says the 2.2 million units worldwide will do little to rescue the formfactor.
Fourth quarter shipments were up 37.6% from the previous quarter, but were down a full 18.2% from the same quarter a year ago. The news gets worse: For full year 2005, shipments of handheld devices reached 7.5 million units, a 16.7% decrease from the 9.1 million units shipped in 2004.
"Vendors with a global footprint still lead the worldwide market, but more and more, vendors with a multi- or even a single region focus have earned top five worldwide status with their focused shipment distribution," said Ramon Llamas, research analyst at IDC's Mobile Markets group.
"The departure of other worldwide vendors has opened the door for smaller vendors to improve their position within the market. During the course of the year, several smaller vendors remained within striking distance of beating each other for the number four or five position, and even posed a challenge to some of the worldwide vendors."
While you might think that the move to converged devices was a sure thing, IDC points out that handheld makers keep flogging the dead horse with "New devices continue to come out from the market leaders, aimed at different user types and offered at different price points. With the addition of GPS solutions, multimedia capability, and WiFi connectivity, handhelds offer additional value beyond just PIM for the user."
Palm maintained its position as the worldwide leader doubling its third quarter shipments but declining 13.2% from the year ago quarter even with its 45.6% market share.
That share was double the number two player, Hewlett-Packard which only managed a 16.9% quarter on quarter up-tick. Its 20.8% market share hides the 33.1% year over year decrease in unit shipments.
A long way back, Dell, improved its shipment volumes 10.2% from last quarter, but slipped 9.2% from the same quarter a year ago nabbing a 8.0% share.
Acer has spent the last two quarters in third place, but slipped back behind Dell. Acer had a shocking hand held quarter slipping 33.1% sequentially, the only vendor among the top five to experience a sequential decline. On the up-side it was more than double what the company sold last year. Acer earned 5.7% worldwide market share.
Rounding out and returning to the top five vendor list after a two quarter absence is Medion, whose shipments grew an astounding 287.8% from the previous quarter, the largest sequential increase of any of the top five vendors.
When compared to its volumes from a year ago, shipments decreased 15.7%. Unlike the top four vendors, the majority of Medion's shipments have been confined within Western Europe, making it the only company with a single regional footprint to earn top five worldwide honors, and ultimately took 4.3% market share.
Related news items Newer news items
Older news items |
|
|
