Initial Palm OS US Fall Retail Sales Strong
Some preliminary sales data for the fall '03 US PDA retail sales, is now in. The figures show strong sales of Palm Powered devices, taking the top three spots for 75% of sales for the period.
In US retail sales, Palm OS share has strengthened since the shipment of the new products in late September. Palm OS share has risen by about ten points, to about 75%, in weekly retail sales figures reported by NPD Techworld / The NPD Group.
The three best-selling handhelds are all Palm Powered in NPD's figures for the week of November 16 (the most recent report available) -- the Palm Tungsten E is the best-seller, followed by the Palm Zire 21, and the Palm Tungsten 3. Sony's new Clie UX-50 is the best-selling handheld in the over-$500 price band.
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RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
What remains to be seen is if palmone can actually make a profit at their current price points. When/if they become profitable, Ska, Pixelator and all the other Palm haters will have to shut up, for a little while at least.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
shhhhhh......
*** crickets ****
*** tumbleweeds ****
*** rustling grass ***
hehhee....pedal to the metal P1! GO!
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
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My blog: www.pocketfactory.com
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
What white elephant? You mean Pocket PC? Hate to bust your bubble, but Pocket PC is growing. Let's see...PalmOS has fallen to just 35-38% of the mobile OS market. What is Microsoft's share? Hasn't it risen to somewhere around 30%? That's hardly a failure. In fact, PalmOS seems to be declining at a faster rate than Windows Mobile is growing. You call that success?
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My blog: www.pocketfactory.com
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
I must say, I'm very surprised at this. Either this is due to weak competition, or I'm flat out wrong. I can't believe a $700 UX50 is beating out $500 models. I am a self-proclaimed UX hater, and I thought it was going to be a huge failure for Sony. Actually, it's making me rethink exactly what power users and the masses are looking for in a PDA. If this is any indication that the mainstream PDA user is taking it up one notch, I don't know what is. The T|E, a $199 model, is the best selling handheld at the moment. That beats out their $99 model, the Zire 21, in 2nd. I think that's astonishing.
Very very curious about the rest of the top ten, and I'm also curious in what some other people think of the situation.
-Bosco
NX80v + Wifi + BT + T616
T|E > Z21
When the original Zire was released, it appealed to a huge, pent-up demand for a low-cost model. I know a lot of people who think they want to get into the PDA world but are worried about blowing a lot of money on a PDA that will end up collecting dust.
Now, though, the great unwashed masses have seen the light. They have their little Zires, but find themselves still hungry. Money is still an issue, though so, for them, the T|E would look like a tasty dish, indeed.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
>... need I remind you all the PDA market is still in a steady state of decline?
Some of the market data seems to have indicated that the PDA market may have bottomed out from its decline, and this data was also for a period that started before the T|E and Z21 were selling in volume.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
Anyway, I think everyone has seen the best Palm can do with their last 4 big models. The T3, TE, mono Zires and the Zire 71 that is poised to be the best selling PDA of the year with a new list price of $249, are all the best we could have hoped for from Palm. Really out of the ball park market home runs. I think each is priced to provide solid profits for Palm as well.
The visions of suger plums dancing in my head are of a successful mating of the Tungsten T3 with the Zire 71 or TE. I like the camera, don't like the slider. The TE is too flat for my taste. A Zire 71 with a 2 megapixel swivel camera, full video with audio recording, 64 meg, and virtual grafitti could get $500 out of my hands. I would have bought a TE already, if it had only had VG. (I would have supplemented it with a pocket camera like the Minolta G400.)
But, Palm is definitely on a roll as shown by Sony's declining sales. Wonder what Sony might have in store to get back in the game. Sony has dropped prices on several models too and that generally means they are ready for some new introductions. A Sony answer to the Zire 71 might be interesting to those not still smarting from the Sony Memory Stick BIG FAT WHOPPING LIE of 2002-3 as I am.
Rumors of March model intros are just around the corner.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
>>bust your bubble, but Pocket PC is growing. Let's
>>see...PalmOS has fallen to just 35-38% of the mobile
>>OS market.
I don't know what Microsoft mouthpiece -- like Gartner -- you are using for this quote but those numbers are dead wrong. Palm OS is has consistenly held 65% yo 75% of the PDA market. Of you are just counting PalmOne branded equipment, and not the other licenesses, you need to go back to school. Put in Sony and the other licensees, you see the real numbers.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
Although the next Zire71 should have a replacement for the stick and a way to record video/audio like the other person said. I really don't think memory is an issue, though, as memory cards negate that need entirely. I'd rather see a higher powered IR beam and have it bundled with Novi/Omni-Remote.
I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We're in space.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
Foo,
While I agree with your market share assessment (based on last quarter's figure-- I suspect in the end that this quarter will show a modest shift in favor of PalmOS), I'd have to disagree with the above comment, mainly due to Tapwave. The Zodiac is bringing new customers into the user base from both the non-PIM pocket gaming users, and Games-first PocketPC crowd.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
Is this the same Pixelator over at Brighthand who is active in the Toshiba e8xx board?
How nice that he has a spokesman here...
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
How nice that he has a spokesman here...<<<<<
Not really. I mean he is not the experienced, multi-PDA, and extrememly handsome guy you are Mike, but he is not altogether a Palm hater.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
abosco wrote:
>>Sony's new Clie UX-50 is the best-selling handheld in the over-$500 price band.
>
>I must say, I'm very surprised at this....it's making me rethink exactly what power users >and the masses are looking for in a PDA.
My two cents: Don't try to think of it as one market. You'll make yourself nuts. I think we've got several very different groups of people who want very different things at different price points. The only reason I even add up total market share any more is so I can explain to software developers the total size of their pool of customers. But in reality, there isn't a single market for handhelds. It's a series of overlapping markets.
>The T|E, a $199 model, is the best selling handheld at the moment. That beats out their >$99 model, the Zire 21, in 2nd. I think that's astonishing.
Would it astonish you further if I told you that, in the weekly NPD numbers, the Tungsten 3 has been selling almost as many units as the Zire 21?
There's this myth that most Palm OS users are low-end lightweights. The sales numbers just don't bear that out.
Mike
CCO, PalmSource Inc.
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
Well of course not. When I said "power users and the masses," I meant them as two different categories, not as one. I was amazed at the UX50 doing the best at $500+ because I believe it to be a poorly-designed product.
>>Would it astonish you further if I told you that, in the weekly NPD numbers, the Tungsten 3 has been selling almost as many units as the Zire 21?
That's very.. wow. I find it astonishing, but hard to believe. Is there any chance you can post some figures?
>>There's this myth that most Palm OS users are low-end lightweights. The sales numbers just don't bear that out.
It's an old myth, but there's still a hint of validity to it. Palm can do low-end products correctly, and they can sell them by the bushel, mostly due to a lack of hardware requirements (which is a good thing in this case). I'm still uneasy about the high-end products available for Palm, though. I would say $400+ is high-end, and I can't really say I'm intrigued by much available for Palm. Evidently a lot of people find the UX50 attractive and have bought it, and that is what puzzled me.
Then again, there's the very real possibility that I'm just weird. ;)
-Bosco
NX80v + Wifi + BT + T616
RE: Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
>>>Would it astonish you further if I told you that, in >the weekly NPD numbers, the Tungsten 3 has been selling >almost as many units as the Zire 21?
>
>That's very.. wow. I find it astonishing, but hard to >believe. Is there any chance you can post some figures?
I'm sorry, it must seem like I'm doing a fan dance here, dangling a few numbers and withholding others. The reality is that I can't release *any* numbers on the actual sales of our licensees, and I can't reprint the whole NPD report because it belongs to them and they charge money (a lot of money) for it.
But let me sumarize a little bit. We just got the monthly US retail report from NPD for October. The monthly report is the most accurate, because it includes almost all of the retail chains, plus e-commerce (Amazon and friends) and commercial resellers that focus on sales to business. Basically, it's everything except direct sales by the manufacturer and smartphones.
The monthly report shows the exact same trends we saw in the weeklies. Tungsten E continues to be the overwhelming best seller, and Tungsten 3 was solidly #2. When we get into November and December, I'm sure sales of the lower-end products will rise as people shop for bargain gifts. And probably there was pent-up demand for the T3 that might not be repeated. But the overall message is that there's a lot more demand for Palm Powered products at the high end of the price curve than many people realize.
Mike
CCO, PalmSource Inc.
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Hehe...Wonder what Ska will have to say to that
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