Palm's Share of the PDA Market Drops in December

Posted By: Ed Friday, February 2, 2001 11:47:19 AM

NPD Intelect, the market research company, has released a list of the top five PDA companies in December. During that month, Palm had 67.5% of the market, which is a drop from the over 70% Palm had enjoyed in previous months. One of the companies cutting into Palm's lead was Handspring, who has moved up a few points to over 16%. None of the rest of the Palm OS licensees made it into the top five.

Casio had the biggest percentage jump on the list. The maker of the Cassiopeia line of PocketPC (PPC) handhelds moved up to a 9.7% share of the market. Interestingly, the number four PDA company was neither a Palm or a PPC licensee. Royal, maker of the daVinci series of PDAs had a 1.8% share.

The fifth entry on the list was Hewlett-Packard, manufacturer of the Jornada PPC handhelds, who also sold 1.8% of the PDAs in December.

Who didn't make the list is also as interesting as who did. Specifically, Compaq dropped off the top five list for the first time since the release of the iPaq.

These ranking are in terms of units sold, not by revenue. You can see the list on the NPD Intelect site.

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Handspring

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/3/2001 9:27:37 AM #

I was a Palm customer since '96. But the Prism is simply the better product. Wanna buy a IIIx + all the add-ons cheap?

michaelfurman@hotmail.com

RE: Handspring

Ed @ 2/6/2001 2:35:24 PM #

Palm is totally cool with losing market share to its licensees. In fact, they want this to happen. They would like to follow the Microsoft model and be an OS company, not a hardware one. As Palm's CEO says, "Let's say we have 10 very strong licensees, each with 8% market share. That's great."

But they need to grow the handheld market before they make enough money of licensing the OS. That's why they are doing what they can to make compelling devices. However, their long-term goal is to stop making devices.

---
Plenipotentiary
Palm Infocenter

Not Surprising

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/3/2001 9:33:26 AM #

With the lack of availability of the flagship VIIx, it looks like Palm missed the boat this time round.
Another BIG mistake Palm has made is not making sure that theVII & VIIx can be used all around the world. Even the Palm clip-on Modem for III and V series can't be used here in Asia for goodness sake! How do you expect to increase sales when your products are so limited in usage? Being a IIIc user myself, the only accessories I can use here are the keyboards and non-important peripherals! Sad...

Handsprings have started appearing on Asian shores now, and with the type of expandability they offer, many would-be Palm users are considering Visors now.

Compaq drops out of the top five

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/3/2001 9:35:58 AM #

As Nelson Muntz would say "Ah-ha!"

still 83 percent of sales

tut00 @ 2/3/2001 1:15:39 PM #

its still nice to see that palm has 83 percent of the market share of all PDA sales. they are still king. i also like how far handspring has come along.

RE: still 83 percent of sales

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/3/2001 6:21:30 PM #

Uh, they have somewhere around 67%. Not 83. Microsoft is also slowly stealing share.

83.5% of the market

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/4/2001 12:28:37 PM #

Palm and Handspring use the Palm Operating System - thats 83.5% to Palm.

Get In Gear

Ken Peterson @ 2/3/2001 11:49:11 PM #

Palm needs to get going with release of some new models to recapture some of the market share.

RE: Not Surprising

César Córcoles @ 2/5/2001 1:04:57 AM #

I'd just like to say that changed: I'm in Europe, and I can use pqas with my IIIx and Nokia 7110.

iPaq problems

Anonymous @ 2/5/2001 8:29:40 PM #

You want to know the REAL story behind iPaq production problems? The StrongARM processor was having problems- irrepairable problems that would crash the PPC. Hmm... maybe that's why Cassiopeia sales went up. My E-125 rules, but my Vx is still my friend because of its market share.