Palm Gains Ground in Europe

During the third quarter of this year, Palm-branded handhelds increased their share of the European market by 5.6%, rising to a 37.9% share, according to a study by Gartner Dataquest. All handhelds running the Palm OS had a 54.9% of share of the European market, while the Pocket PC OS had 29.1%.

Sales of handhelds in total dropped 34.5% compared to the same quarter last year. The decline in Europe's economy has reversed what until now was a constantly increasing demand for handhelds.

Microsoft's share of the market dropped more than 10% from 40.9% during the quarter. This was mainly from decreased demand for the iPaq. Compaq lost almost half its share of the market, dropping from 30.2% to 16.9%.

Until recently, many Palm OS companies have either treated Europe poorly or ignored it altogether. Palm recently began dropping some of its prices there. Until these cuts, high-end Palm models were as expensive as Pocket PC ones, while in the U.S. they are significantly less. Sony is beginning to offer in Europe the N770C, a version of its high-end model with a hi-res screen and MP3 playback. Until now, the only Clié available had been from the first generation.

Related Information:

• Reuters: Palm Wins Share as Europe's PDA Market Contracts
• PIC: Handheld Sales Drop in Europe
• PIC: Palm Increases Sales but Loses Market Share in Europe

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