Comments on: Worldwide Handheld Shipments Gain Slightly

The worldwide market for handheld devices experienced a slight sequential gain in the second quarter of 2004, but, despite strong shipments from top 5 vendors including palmOne, was unable to post a year-over-year increase. According to IDC, device shipments increased 3.2% sequentially and dropped 2.2% year-over-year in 2Q04 to 2.2 million units.

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Why do they skipped the new Cobalt launches?

a3 @ 7/27/2004 4:36:03 PM #

I wonder why is it that they did not mention that in the 3rd quarter PalmOne is going to launch the first OS6 models. After all that is a milestone that should be mentioned...

____________________________________________________
Current fan of a 320x480 tablet shaped Palm with built in BT+Wifi for less than US$450

Palm OS

MrBond @ 7/27/2004 4:51:48 PM #

PalmSource should really start working on getting another major OEM using Palm OS stuff. Now that PalmOne is just another individual licensee, you'd think we'd be seeing more competition in the Palm space. Maybe get Samsung or Kyocera to bring lowcost Palm smartphones into the channels?

http://www.mozilla.org

RE: Palm OS

hkklife @ 7/27/2004 5:24:51 PM #

Panasonic! A ruggedized yet slightly cutting-edge POS handheld (not smartphone, at least not for the time being) like their Toughbook PC notebooks. I've been preaching this for at least 2 years now. Panasonic's vested interest in the SD format only helps matters. They've been producing ruggedized notebooks for years so there might be a market out there for a chunky (think IIIC-size) unit with a large virtual graffiti screen, a durable housing and a long-life replacable battery. Wireless would be a bonus or for a followup model. BT could be implemented through an internal SDIO card (so what if it wouldn't have much of a range) if it wasn't built in from the start.

Contractors and outdoor enthusiasts would be all over something like this. Heck, assuming Nextel had an appropriately BT-equipped phone, it'd make a nice tagteam with one of these handhelds.

RE: Palm OS

JonathanChoo @ 7/28/2004 5:14:45 AM #

PalmOS is way behind in terms of vertical market licensees. Toshiba used to pursue a PalmOS license, I do hope they would get one despite exiting the PPC market.

--
Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770 > T625 > NR70 > e310 > T/T > h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630

Palm needs to slow down

oceanman2004 @ 7/27/2004 6:38:44 PM #

Palm needs to slow down a bit and take stock of their current offerings. With the Zire 72's paint peeling problems and 3rd party aps corrupting their software, it's time to stop, fix the problem then move forward carefully. They are at full speed with nothing to show for it.

RE: Palm needs to slow down

Strider_mt2k @ 7/28/2004 6:14:35 PM #

They invented this move with the m100 series.

OS6

tooele @ 7/27/2004 7:00:29 PM #

Palm is still the leader in sales but they need to start releasing things sooner. I like palm but has anyone noticed that they only have one PDA with WI-FI? Sony has at least 3 I can think of. We've also been waiting for OS6 for well over a year. I have nothing against palm I like there products but it would be nice if they would release things sooner.

RE: OS6

tooele @ 7/27/2004 7:15:23 PM #

By the way who is Medion?

RE: OS6

hkklife @ 7/27/2004 9:37:37 PM #

Medion is a large German computer & consumer electronics company. Their primary market is in Europe but they are dabbling in the US markets via a couple of chains. I first saw their desktop PCs (somewhere in between an E-Machines and an HP in style, quality & value) in Costco last year. They also sold their stuff through Aldi (also a German chain) grocery stores at rock-bottom prices. I think Best Buy VERY briefly carried a single model of Medion PC but that was soon dropped. They sell a TV/DVD combo unit at Office Max stores as well, I think.

I am assuming they are just seeling a rebadged Asus PPC or something for European markets. People over there don't think twice about buying a PC or a PDA at a grocery store (if the price is right) unlike the USA.

RE: OS6

JonathanChoo @ 7/28/2004 2:04:30 AM #

There are no PDAs in any groceries store or even large stores that I know of.

So far I have only seen one Medion and its made by HTC similar to a HP h1940 (except the buttons). Its sold as a GPS package.

--
Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770 > T625 > NR70 > e310 > T/T > h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630

RE: OS6

arielb @ 7/28/2004 1:58:46 PM #

so Toshiba left after all...and who the heck are these Medion guys? We really are seeing consolidation in this market and PalmOne and HP know how to take advantage of that

RE: OS6

hkklife @ 7/28/2004 2:10:04 PM #

I was in Germany a year ago at one or two of the Aldi-type competitors (small grocery stores with rock bottom pricing and mostly private label foodstuffs).

They were offering, during the 2 weeks or so that I was there, a sat speaker/sub/DVD player combo (like what you can get for $100 here from some no-name brand rebadger like Koss, Apex etc), a 3 or 4 megapixel camera, and a cheaper desktop Intel CPU-based laptop. So I suppose the Germans like to buy their stuff along with groceries more so than in the UK where the retail market (based on the little I have seen) more closely resembles the US-proper electronic chains etc.

At any rate, Medion has at least some presence in the USA. Their PC boxes in Costco last year also displayed "PC assembled in Germany from worldwide suppliers" or something to that effect ;-)

RE: OS6

hkklife @ 7/30/2004 2:56:59 PM #

On sale at Aldi stores in the USA starting Mon Aug 2nd: Medion Pentium M 705 (1.5ghz) 15" TFT, 802.11g/b, 256mb DDR, DVD/CDRW combo drive, TV-out. Nice laptop for $999! Sounds like these guys are starting to take the US market very seriously ;-)

http://usa.aldi.com/special_purchases_01/index.html

Too bad they aren't a licensee of POS!

All alone

HiWire @ 7/28/2004 11:07:26 AM #

Anybody else see the irony... PalmOne as the sole major manufacturer

Palm m505 User

RE: All alone

palmhiker @ 7/28/2004 11:38:24 AM #

Likely to stay that way for a while. Have you seen the butt-ugly, mediocre lineup that HP just released?

Where is the competition? Palmone really needs someone on their heels to force them to continue to innovate.

RE: All alone

Ou_Boet @ 7/28/2004 11:45:10 AM #

Yes that subtlety was not lost one me.

OB

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Any device can have one more useful feature added.

HandEra Moderator at [url="http://www.PalmVenue.com/forum"]PalmVenue[/url]

RE: All alone

JonathanChoo @ 7/28/2004 11:51:28 AM #

Of course its sad...and yes, HP's new products are quite ugly (apart from the 4700 which I think its alright). But then again, Palm has made some pretty ugly PDAs as well - Zire 71 as well as most of the pre OS5 devices. And Dell PDAs are even uglier.

--
PalmOne Tungsten T3/256Mb Panasonic SD; HP h4150/512Mb Sandisk Ultra-II, Sony Ericsson T630

Spin this one

smap77 @ 7/29/2004 1:05:06 PM #

Up vs. the quarter, down vs. the year.

Way to put a bright headline on that one...especially since the article points out that this first-to-second quarter gain is seen in most companies.

I look to you guys for "News" not "Spin"

RE: Spin this one

Gekko @ 7/29/2004 2:14:56 PM #

agreed.

No Spin Zone - PalmOne LOST Market Share

Gekko @ 7/29/2004 8:53:05 PM #

Tech Stocks : Hardware & PCs
Gartner Sees Big Handheld Growth

By Troy Wolverton
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
7/29/2004 4:12 PM EDT

The market for handheld computers may be staging a comeback, thanks in large part to Research In Motion (RIMM:Nasdaq - news - research), according to data released today by Gartner.

Handheld makers shipped 2.75 million personal digital assistants (PDAs) in the second quarter, up 12% from the same period a year ago, according to Gartner.

Research In Motion's shipments grew 289% to 510,000 units, making it the third-largest handheld maker in terms of volume. In terms of units, RIM's shipments increased by nearly 380,000 -- or about 1.3 times the total amount by which overall handheld shipments increased.

Gartner attributed RIM's success to growing business demand for handhelds.

"The second-quarter results show a continuing shift from what has been a predominantly consumer market to a market in which more than one-third of all PDA purchases are made by organizations," said Gartner analyst Todd Kort in a statement.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ:NYSE - news - research) and Dell (DELL:Nasdaq - news - research) also gained share in the quarter, according to Gartner.

H-P, the No. 2 handheld maker in terms of volume, shipped 529,773 units in the quarter, up 38.9% from the second quarter last year. Meanwhile, Dell shipped 147,500 handhelds, up 6.5%. H-P's market share was 19.3% in the quarter, while Dell's was 5.4%.

Market share losers included PalmOne (PLMO:Nasdaq - news - research) and Sony (SNE:NYSE - news - research), according to Gartner. PalmOne's shipments declined 3.2% to 913,202, giving it a 33.2% share of the market.

Sony, which announced last month that it was exiting the PDA market, saw its shipments decline 35.9% to 174,804 units. The consumer electronics giant held a market share of 6.4% in the quarter, good enough for fourth place.

Gartner's data stands in contrast to research released earlier this week by IDC. IDC reported that handheld shipments declined 2.2% in the second quarter from the same period last year to 2.2 million units worldwide.

The difference between IDC's numbers and Gartner's figures largely has to do with how the two research firms classify RIM's Blackberry device, IDC analyst David Linsalata said. While Gartner categorizes the Blackberry as a handheld, IDC considers it to be a "converged" device, and doesn't include its shipments in its PDA totals, Linsalata said.

Despite Gartner's data indicating a sales decline, PalmOne's stock rose $3.37, or 9%, to $40.87 Thursday. H-P's stock was also trading higher, gaining 28 cents, or 1.4%, to $20.21.

Dell, RIM and Sony all traded lower: Dell fell 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $35.26; RIM slid 46 cents, or 0.7%, to $61.76, and Sony shed 76 cents, or 2.2%, to $34.27.

http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/tech/hardware/10175281.html