PDA Sales Slow Slightly, Palm Maintains Lead

Posted By: Ryan Monday, August 18, 2003 1:37:56 PM

In their latest report, Gartnet says poor worldwide economic conditions, low consumer confidence and a severe decline in the Chinese PDA market affected the worldwide PDA market in the second quarter of 2003, as shipments dropped 7.3 percent from the same period last year. Palm OS based products retained their market dominance, accounting for over 51% of worldwide PDA shipments.

Palm OS-based PDAs comprised 51.4 percent of worldwide PDA shipments, while Pocket PC PDAs composed 35.9 percent of total units. In terms of end-user spending, PalmSource licensees accounted for 41.0 percent of the $827 million spent on PDAs in the second quarter of 2003, compared with 47.7 percent spent on Microsoft Pocket PC PDAs. The 66 percent higher average selling price of Pocket PCs accounted for the difference between unit and dollar shares.

"It is critical for Palm to hold its ground while waiting for the launch of Palm OS 6, which is expected in early 2004," said Todd Kort, principal analyst for Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide group. "OS 6 should put Palm on more even footing with Microsoft as wireless PDAs gain acceptance in enterprises in 2004."

In the overall PDA market, the second quarter is traditionally slow, however, Palm, Inc. experienced a 15.3 percent increase in shipments from a year ago, and it held onto the top spot in the worldwide rankings with 38 percent of PDA shipments (see Table 1). Hewlett-Packard remained in the No. 2 position with 15.3 percent of the market, even though shipments were down 10 percent. Research in Motion moved into the top 5 worldwide with market share of 5.3 percent, up from 2.1 percent a year ago.

"The Palm Zire 71 was by far the best-selling PDA on the market, and the new Tungsten C was also well received, which helped Palm maintain its solid leadership position" Kort said. "While HP's shipments were down, a good portion of their decline is attributable to shipments cutbacks in anticipation of the launch of five new models following the introduction of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2003 operating system on June 23."

Palm still sits atop the U.S. PDA market with a 46.7 percent market share, while Sony remained No. 2 with 12.1 percent market share (see Table 2). Sony maintains an aggressive PDA development program, but Gartner analysts said Sony has been impacted by the Palm Zire 71, which has helped Palm stem the tide of customer defections to Sony.

Worldwide PDA Vendor Shipment Estimates for 2Q03 (Units)

Company	2Q03 Shipments	2Q03 Market Share (%)	2Q02 Shipments	2Q02 Market Share (%)	Growth (%)
Palm	943,807	38.0	818,800	30.5	15.3
Hewlett-Packard	381,298	15.3	424,950	15.9	-10.3
Sony	272,638	11.0	275,315	10.3	-1.0
Dell	132,417	5.3	NA	NA	NA
Research in Motion	131,100	5.3	55,950	2.1	134.3
Others	624,557	25.1	1,105,646	41.2	-43.5
Total	2,485,817	100.0	2,680,661	100.0	-7.3

Note: Totals include wireless PDAs such as Palm Tungsten W and HP iPAQ 5450, but not smartphones.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (August 2003)

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Clie

sonylover @ 8/18/2003 2:07:01 PM #

This is off topic, but I just realized- Clie+n(series)t(series) =Client
as in sony clients. Then take the n for n-series and t for t-series and you have sony's product line.

Sony's product cycle is in dog years!

RE: Clie

arielb @ 8/20/2003 5:23:46 AM #

umm so how do you explain the U and S series?

os 6

greentruck15 @ 8/18/2003 2:58:35 PM #

I thought the new T3 would have OS 6 on it, just from the screen shot it looked newer than OS 5.2. It says that it is coming in 2004

RE: os 6

Hazniet @ 8/18/2003 4:40:40 PM #

From the pictures I've seen the T3 has an updated os5 that suppports landscape mode and hi-res+. The leaked screenshots from os6 show a new GUI, among other things.

________________________________________
If you feel like you're under control, you're just not going fast enough.

RE: os 6

T.W.G @ 8/19/2003 11:24:04 AM #

Hi,

I think the TT3 will have Palm OS 5.3 and come out in October!

In Palm OS 5.3 virtual Graffiti is standard! :-)

Greetings from Germany

Thomas
www.twgmusic.de

Palm Powered Handheld Reviews from T.W.G at: www.pdaforum.de

All new

Georg @ 8/19/2003 12:48:14 AM #

Wow,!!!! www.palmone.com
New name - new color - same/more problems???????

Sony losing, Palm gaining

jmchamblis @ 8/19/2003 9:29:52 AM #

I find it interesging that with a new device seemingly every other week, Sony's numbers dropped slightly but Palm gained a bit.

RE: Sony losing, Palm gaining

Strider_mt2k @ 8/20/2003 8:48:09 AM #

I left Palm to go to Sony.

I don't think pa1mone is going to have what it takes to win me back.

PalmOS 6 critical?

arielb @ 8/20/2003 5:05:26 AM #

while PalmOS 6 would be nice to have, the worse of Palm's days are over since it can support 400 mhz ARM processors, up to 128 megs ram, 320x320 displays with 12 bit color -nobody can really make fun of Palm hardware anymore.

RE: PalmOS 6 critical?

shdeetz @ 8/23/2003 2:14:51 PM #

True, however Sony already supports 320x480 and 16 bit color. Palm is still lagging behind even with their newest stuff.

RE: PalmOS 6 critical?

The Ugly Truth @ 8/23/2003 8:23:32 PM #

Palm's independent (from Sony) future is getting cloudier every month. They should never have licensed the OS to other manufacturers. It's interesting to see that over the years Sony, HandEra and now even Garmin have produced PDAs that make Palm's offerings look weak by comparison. Unfortunately, the Treo 600 will probably be too little, too expensive, too late.