Worldwide Handheld Market Continues Decline

Following a holiday quarter in which worldwide shipments of handheld devices topped two million units, the worldwide market for handheld devices began 2006 with its ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline. According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView report, worldwide shipments of handheld devices totaled 1.5 million units, down 22.3% from the same quarter a year ago.

Despite the incorporation of features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, expandable memory, and integrated GPS solutions, the handheld market continues to shrink. Many of these same features can be found on mobile phones, and the inclusion of telephony extends the usability of mobile phones beyond that of handheld devices. Still, vendors continue to search for ways to keep their products viable within this space by appealing to first-time and core users, or even joining the converged mobile device (i.e. smartphone) space altogether.

"A decline in shipments following the holiday quarter is expected of mature markets, and the handheld devices market is no different. After nine consecutive quarters of year-over-year decline, many are wondering how long this trend will continue, and whether the market will see a reverse," says Ramon Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Markets team. "IDC believes that the market will eventually hit a size where the rate of year-over-year decline will slow to a sustainable level. That size has yet to be determined, but will be sustained by the core users of handheld devices as well as the enhancements found on these devices."

Vendor Highlights

  • Palm, Inc Palm started off 2006 in much the same way it ended 2005: as the worldwide leader in the handheld market. With shipment volumes 23.3% lower than a year ago, the U.S.-based company was buoyed by the success of the Palm Tungsten E2 and the Palm Z22 handheld. At the same time, shipments of Palm's line of Treo smartphones continue to increase, surpassing shipments of its handheld devices.
  • Hewlett Packard Also feeling the effects of the declining market, HP's handheld device shipments decreased 30.3% year over year. With both its professional and home office handheld device lines running on Windows 5.0, HP remains the worldwide leader in Microsoft-powered handheld devices. The company's converged mobile device line also had a year-over-year decrease, but new devices are expected to ship later this year.
  • Dell Despite a decline of 33.8% in shipments from a year ago, the U.S.-based company remained the number three vendor worldwide. As the Axim x30 and x50 model lines have reached the end of their product life cycles, Dell has emphasized its x51 lines, which offer greater processing power and features over the other models.
  • Acer Of all the vendors in the top five, Acer had the smallest year-over-year decline at 10.8%, staying ahead of fifth place Mio. The company's shipments within Asia/Pacific remained steady while shipments into Europe declined slightly. The company's latest device, the n300, joins a portfolio of Acer's devices that include expandable memory, Bluetooth, and WiFi features.
  • Mio Rounding out the top five is Mio, whose shipment volumes increased enough in Europe and Asia to post a healthy year-over-year increase and to edge out Medion for the final spot. Mio was the only vendor within the top five to record a year-over-year increase at an impressive 84.4%. The company continued to offer a suite of handheld devices targeted at different segments of the market, featuring Bluetooth, WiFi, and imaging capability.
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Handheld Device Shipments and Market Share, 1Q 2006 (Preliminary)

Vendor

Q1 2006 Shipments

Q1 2006 Market Share

Q1 2005 Shipments

Q1 2005 Market Share

1Q06/1Q05

Growth

Palm

475,000

32.2%

619,253

32.6%

-23.3%

HP

346,000

23.5%

496,755

26.2%

-30.3%

Dell

143,100

9.7%

216,229

11.4%

-33.8%

Acer

110,688

7.5%

124,084

6.5%

-10.8%

Mio

104,609

7.1%

56,720

3.0%

84.4%

Others

294,849

20.0%

385,482

20.3%

-23.5%

TOTAL

1,474,246

100.0%

1,898,523

100.0%

-22.3%

Source: IDC Worldwide Handheld QView, April 26, 2006

Notes:

  • Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
  • Handheld devices are pocket-sized, either pen or keypad-centric, and are capable of synchronizing with desktop or laptop computers. Handheld devices are designed to access and manage data including office documents, multimedia, and games.
  • Handheld devices do not include telephony but may include wireless capabilities that enable Internet access and text communication. These devices feature evolved operating systems or applications environments such as the Palm OS, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Linux, or other proprietary platforms with the ability to download, run applications, and store user data beyond their required PIM capabilities.

Thanks to Craig Bowers for the tip.

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How about they're just too expensive?

gadgetmejm @ 5/1/2006 11:29:25 PM # Q
One thing I have noticed over the years as handhelds continue to decline is that prices for many handhelds, specifically Windows Mobile, continue to increase. I am sure this is not the only reason, but one of many. I know when I go to buy a PDA my price-mark is USD$199 - USD$249 MAX. Personally I can't imagine spending over USD$500 for a Dell Axim or even USD$399 for a LifeDrive.

[plug]With a better screen, the Palm Z22 is sure to be a HUGE hit in the PDA world and launch Palm back to ownership of the handheld market. Lets wait and see what's in store for the Z23.[/plug]

Reviews on Palm OS, Windows Mobile, iPod, Mac and other mobile gadgets.

RE: How about they're just too expensive?
AdamaDBrown @ 5/2/2006 12:29:58 AM # Q
My experience has been the opposite. Four years ago, HP was selling their flagship devices at $700 or close to it. Palm was selling their Tungsten Ts and Cs for $400-500. Now Palm and to a lesser extent HP are both selling in the sub-$300 range, as is Dell (although they've always been there).

RE: How about they're just too expensive?
hkklife @ 5/2/2006 2:03:56 AM # Q
Adama;

True, the T|T/T|C were $400-$500 but they also featured (arguably) certain "high end" features currently unavailable on 'flagship' Palms such as metal casings, vibrating alarms, charge LEDs and cradles in the box.

Perhaps a better comparison is LifeDrive to T|T (both launched at $500 before quickly dropping)

I personally feel the "sweet spot" for a basic PDA is $100, with a "feature" PDA coming in at ~$200ish and a "high end" PDA topping out around $300. Coincidentially, Palm has units at all of those price points.

I actually think a decently marketed & distributed mono PDA in the ~$50-$60 area would STILL do decently well at places like Wal-Mart etc. If Royal/Sharp/Casio organizers & digital diaries can still sell well with 48k of RAM then an 8mb "expandable" (software, not in a memory sense) Palm Zire 21 type unit would clean up IMO. Bundling it with some kind of graphing calculator type app would help sell it to students as well.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

RE: How about they're just too expensive?
AdamaDBrown @ 5/2/2006 3:38:07 AM # Q
True, the T|T/T|C were $400-$500 but they also featured (arguably) certain "high end" features currently unavailable on 'flagship' Palms such as metal casings, vibrating alarms, charge LEDs and cradles in the box.

Yeah, but there are a few things the current models have that the older ones lacked, like WiFi, gobs of memory, uh...

Um...

Okay, gimme a minute here...

Oh, NVFS. We have NVFS. (Waits for the inevitable person questioning whether or not that's a feature.)

RE: How about they're just too expensive?
VampireLestat @ 5/2/2006 4:41:31 AM # Q
Palm value has definately gone way up.

- Big cuts in prices.
- NVFS
- Better sound chip.
- Better stronger speaker.
- Less screen flaws, TFT screens (still, we need OLED!)
- WiFi
- BT
- 128 Meg
- Better battery life.
- Better Intel Bulverde chips.
- E2/T5/TX frame builds are very strong and good quality.
- Higher capacity SD slots.


RE: How about they're just too expensive?
hkklife @ 5/2/2006 10:20:53 AM # Q
Vampire/Adama et al;

Something to keep in mind is that NVFS/NAND memory is actually CHEAPER to purchase that good ol' flash DRAM that the T3 and earlier used.

I'll point everyone to an 18-month old post by the dearly departed TVOR outlining the (dubious at best) "benefits" of NVFS:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/comments/7271/#100402

In short, I was glad ONCE to have NVFS in my TX when it locked up and ran down the battery while it was in my travel bag.
Of course, it had locked up doing some very mundane operation (opening an email in VM) that never would have froze up my T3 or T|C doing a similar task. So there's a double edged sword if there ever was one....

NVFS has probably saved my butt once......yet it locks up my TX at unexpected moments and/or requires reset at least 1x weekly. I run a "leaner'n meaner" software load on the TX than I did on the T3 and still have more quirks. It's better than the T5 or LD were but still not to the level of the old volatile DRAM-based Palms.

Sluggish performance is another irritation of NVFS. I've even encountered semi-embarressing delays as the TX lagged incessanetly while I was trying to look up an appointment or a telephone number with a coworker peering over my shoulder.

While it seems inevitable that NVFS is the "wave" of the future for no reason other than sheer economic factors, it's certainly not the holy grail of mobile computing. I'll also wager that NVFS is more approproiate in a smartphone that's likely to have its battery completely run down than it is in a traditional PDA or "mobile manager" (ahem) where units are usually recharged on a more frequent basis & used less intensively.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

RE: How about they're just too expensive?
ackmondual @ 5/3/2006 5:23:49 PM # Q
I agree with everything else said about NVFS except for the link within your link you posted talking about "padding". That has been resolved for the most part

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

Reply to this comment

Handheld shipments

VampireLestat @ 5/1/2006 11:46:04 PM # Q
HP lost ground again because their hardware designs suck (except the 1950 - but the speaker sucks), Windows Mobile is slow and complicated, the alarms sometimes dont go off, the stupid little useless dpad+buttons are a joke, no one uses biometric scan nonsense - sigh, the screen is all blurry with 240x320, you cant find a half decent mp3 player for ppc. I mean, NO WONDER people return HP pdas.

PALM (the company I love and hate at the same time), HOW COME the TX is not selling more? :( The device is a joy to use and its relatively inexpensive. I simply dont understand.

Z22 selling well is a big surprise to me. Why the God doesnt put a 320x320 on that and call it Z23? 160x160 is no good.

DELL, who cares, their X51v is just as slow as the HPs, the battery is nothing more than a farce, the narrow viewing angles of the screen are unacceptable and the buttons suck like on the HP.

Palm is the king and Im saddened to see that sales are going down instead of up.

Anyways, Palm can count on me as one of their core buyers.

Lets see a super LifeDrive and a boosted TX with Palm OS II. MAKE THE TX2 DE DEFACTO MOBILE MOVIE PLAYER ON THE MARKET with a nice OLED screen. Come on Palm, now is the time! HP is letting its guard down and they are weak now. Now is the time to kick them while they are down (such a cruel world... sigh...)



RE: Handheld shipments
VampireLestat @ 5/2/2006 12:06:38 AM # Q
And I will say it again, there is absolutely no chance that handheld sales are destined to wither away. ZERO chance. Mark my words.

Think such crazy things is akin to saying in 1990: "People at home simply don't need computers. Sales are going to plateau."

Handhelds will be huge $ makers. Its all about refining a few more little things in designs and performance, then you will see those new devices trigger landslide sales. The TX design is getting VERY close to that "market triggering threshold".

If Palm had been more attentive to what people like me have been saying for years, the iPOD market would be theirs!

Instead, we every child, teen and adult running around with them stupif single task iPOD when they could pay about the same with Palm and have a full computer with 20 000 programs. Ludicrous.

RE: Handheld shipments
SeldomVisitor @ 5/2/2006 7:38:11 AM # Q
You can be sure that PALM will, if cgiven an opportunity soon, advertise these new statistics as:

== PALM gained marketshare in worldwide handheld shipments!

RE: Handheld shipments
SeldomVisitor @ 5/2/2006 7:40:05 AM # Q
oopsie! Read the stats backwards - drat!

Forget the comment above - instead PALm will say....

RE: Handheld shipments
ptc @ 5/2/2006 1:29:54 PM # Q
Lestat - I think a Z22 replacement with 320x320 will be the blow-out palm. At $99 it looks like sale sfor the Z22 are doing extremely well. The TX @ $299 is just too much for a casual purchase.

Z22 has an excellent form factor (nice and small) plus it has the ipod cute factor going for it as well. This model is a winner. It's replacement with 320x320 OLED @ $99 would be the true killer Palm...


RE: Handheld shipments
hkklife @ 5/2/2006 3:17:31 PM # Q
320*320 & OLED anything at that price point is a pipe dream.

Much more crucial to the $100 and below market are the VERY critical SD slot & headphone jack (and of course the requisite FAT32 driver for that SD slot).

Take the SD slot & headphone jack of the Zire 31, give it the Z22's NVFS, formfactor, newer OS and pricetag and you have an outstanding PDA. You might even see Treo owners buying them on a whim just to have a spare/backup unit and something to "play" with.

There's plenty of life left in the PDA market...it's just in the <$200 impulse buy realm of blister packed units at Wal-Mart/Target with basic feature sets.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

RE: Handheld shipments
ackmondual @ 5/3/2006 5:32:04 PM # Q
PALM (the company I love and hate at the same time), HOW COME the TX is not selling more? :( The device is a joy to use and its relatively inexpensive. I simply dont understand.

AFAIK, it's still selling at a steady rate. For example, on the Cnet forums, ppl ask what handheld they should get. If it's a high end Palm, many of the moderators will suggest a T|X with a LD behind it.

Z22 selling well is a big surprise to me. Why the God doesnt put a 320x320 on that and call it Z23? 160x160 is no good.

hkklife already beat me to the punchline. Hi-res screens are more expensive to produce and they wouldn't be able to maintain (not a $100, but) a $99 MSRP. Anything even at just tens $ more just doesn't have the same warm, fuzzy inexpensive feeling. Besides, keep in mind you're thinking from our perspective. You'd have to PAY ME real well to use a low-res device, but soccer moms and beginners won't really mind it. They'd either rather save the $$ or won't even notice it in the first place since they won't really use the hi-res one. If they do want a hi-res screen, they either would'v gotten that in the first place or return and exchange for said screen resolution.
It's like I always say, the z22 and z31 may be good beginner PDAs, but the T|E and T|E2 are _great_ beginner PDAs.

It's like with desktops. My dad uses a 'crummy' 15" CRT screen. He's so cheap, he would rather stick with that than spend the $100+ for even an LCD or CRT monitor that's noticeably bigger. I have a nice 18" LCD. At the opposite end of the extreme are people who can't work with anything less than dual widescreen LCDs. People need to find what they're good with and go with it.

DELL, who cares, their X51v is just as slow as the HPs, the battery is nothing more than a farce, the narrow viewing angles of the screen are unacceptable and the buttons suck like on the HP.

ppl are also in it for the graphics accelorator, VGA, replaceablle batteries, persistent memory storage, and other stuff not mentioned. It ain't just the stuff you mentioned. Of course not ALL of these are necessarily good reasons, as some of us indeed are still with pOS.

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

Reply to this comment

And another thing!

VampireLestat @ 5/2/2006 12:15:28 AM # Q
I don`t know why no one is talking about this, but one of the single most important things to super-boost Palm sales is OLED.

OLED = Stunning visual experience, wide angles, faster refresh, thinner Palms, lower batt consumption, etc!.

ITS ALL ABOUT A VISUAL EXPERIENCE. That will make new people fall in love with Palm. When photos and movies are ultra clear from all angles, thats when people will no longer poo-poo handhelds.

For the love of God, please, someone act on this.

OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED
OLED

Or some equivalend.

RE: And another thing!
ginsberg @ 5/2/2006 2:23:44 AM # Q
You've bought into the OLED hype.

Two important reasons why OLEDs are only used as secondary displays on a few phones:

1) higher costs than LCDs
2) OLEDs cannot support high resolutions (yet)


RE: And another thing!
VampireLestat @ 5/2/2006 3:43:49 AM # Q
If Sony Corp. can make an Clié with a spectacular OLED screen, then so can Palm Incorporated.

Palm is still somewhat an American company and it would be nice to see them give Japanese companies like Sony a lesson in making cutting edge technology for a change.

Where are the good old days when America was innovator and not the following slackers?

As for price, either make a handheld available in 2 formats, 1 with transflective and another, more expensive, with OLED. I know I for one, as a huge fan of mobile technology would buy it.

The TX is significantly less expensive than the T5. There is room to increase the cost a bit to put in an OLED screen.

On such small screens, how can visual clarity not be a critical area of improvement, and how can it not become essential to consumers?

Remember the days when reflective screens were "OK" and then everyone was rushing for transflective screens?

MP3, movies and pictures will become more and more important in the mobile experience. Making it easy to quickly port them from a laptop to a handheld, and being able to enjoy them on the Palm without have to carefully focus the device in a very tight and precice line of sight will be a key factor in the success of any future mobile device maker.


RE: And another thing!
VampireLestat @ 5/2/2006 3:56:34 AM # Q
jeez, sorry for the typos. Problem with PIC is I cannot edit and correct my posts. LOL

RE: And another thing!
ackmondual @ 5/3/2006 5:28:32 PM # Q
^^

Didn't even notice the typos till you brought it up. I don't feel like going back to that post to check, so I'll just take your word for it :)

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

Reply to this comment

Does Palm's numbers include Treo sales?

RLFox124 @ 5/2/2006 11:25:55 AM # Q
It seems to me smartphones are not included in the sales figure for PDAs. If that is the case, Palm's sales decline is significantly less than stated in this report because the Treo...which is definitely a PDA seems to be a big success!

RE: Does Palm's numbers include Treo sales?
Admin @ 5/2/2006 12:15:49 PM # Q
this report does not include treos, or devices with phone capabilities.

-Ryan
RE: Does Palm's numbers include Treo sales?
joad @ 5/2/2006 8:14:20 PM # Q
Then in a way it's sorta pointless, as the definition of a "PDA" hasn't kept up with the technology.

Just because my "PDA" has a microphone and a wireless radio it's suddenly *NOT* a PDA? What's the defining factor- adding the microphone or adding the CDMA radio? It's rather ridiculous.

I haven't "stopped" buying PDAs, I just chose to buy one that has the ability to make phone calls and connect to the internet... If it were counted as a "cell phone," then (for the price and abilities) it should also get a vote as a PDA... because if the Treo didn't have the ability of a Treo - IE: PDA built-in, then Palm would still be selling me a PDA separately as they have for years.

This "market decline of PDAs" story seems to come up all the time on these user group sites, probably just to keep the conversations "fresh" when there's really nothing to report on the Palm front.

Did automobile sales suddenly "decline" after they introduced Automatic Transmissions or Radial Tires or built-in stereo or GPS? Hardly - they just expanded the capabilities of the automobile without changing the definition of the product.

Palm is a bit dense to keep distancing itself from it's PDA roots - there are a heck of a lot of "cell phone" manufacturers and operating systems out there to swallow them whole (cough700wsymbiancough). If the Treo wasn't built around a solid PDA organizer OS (Palm), they'd be selling about as well as the 700w and we'd all still just be using a separate PDA and a cell phone.

RE: Does Palm's numbers include Treo sales?
SeldomVisitor @ 5/3/2006 6:50:48 AM # Q
If "handhelds" are to include TREOs, then I want my Sony-Ericsson phone to be included as well since it is programmable.

WAITAMINUTE!

No, I don't.

And you shouldn't either.

RE: Does Palm's numbers include Treo sales?
ChiA @ 5/3/2006 11:21:42 AM # Q
joad said
Just because my "PDA" has a microphone and a wireless radio it's suddenly *NOT* a PDA?
...
Did automobile sales suddenly "decline" after they introduced Automatic Transmissions or Radial Tires or built-in stereo or GPS?

I can just picture the arguments in 1900:
"Just because my carriage has an engine it's suddenly not a carriage? Did sales of carriages declined after they introduced pneumatic tyres or brakes?"

The point is that wireless/cellular radio adds functionality which can can change the very way you use that device.

Naturally, you can use such a device without the radio, just as you can use today's automobiles today as a horse buggy (may even have to in the future with the way oil prices are going up! :) )

It's time to accept that the majority of people prefer (smart)phones over handhelds, after all handhelds have been around in some shape or form since the 1980s (1970s if you include calculators).
No doubt they will be a market for handhelds (just as there's still a market for horse's carts and buggies) but the (smart)phone market is far far larger.

RE: Does Palm's numbers include Treo sales?
joad @ 5/3/2006 7:51:13 PM # Q
Adding a WiFi radio to the Tungsten C didn't suddenly change it to a "laptop" or "Web Appliance." Still a PDA even by these guys' definition.

..Add a CDMA or GSM radio and suddenly it's NOT a PDA?

A "horseless carriage" is still a carriage, just changed the engine from horse to steam/electric/gas motor. My "smartphone" is still my PDA, just added a CDMA radio.

SeldomVisitor says
>"If "handhelds" are to include TREOs, then I want my Sony-Ericsson >phone to be included as well since it is programmable."

AFAIK "PDA" stands for "Personal Digital Assistant" not "Programmable..." Definitions vary (touchscreen or not, OS, functions/PIMs, etc), not knowing your Sony phone's capabilities I can't say much more.

My toaster is programmable too, but I don't consider it a PDA. However, it does make delicious toast.

The Inevitability of playing around with PDA/Smartphone Semantics
ChiA @ 5/4/2006 3:14:01 PM # Q
A "horseless carriage" is still a carriage, just changed the engine from horse to steam/electric/gas motor. My "smartphone" is still my PDA, just added a CDMA radio.

An airplane is a horseless carriage (it's got an engine and wheels) just added a pair of wings to it.

"PDA" stands for "Personal Digital Assistant"
My toaster is programmable too, but I don't consider it a PDA.

If your toaster has a microchip in it then it's a PDA: It's a digital assistant which assists you personally in the production of toast!

This is the danger of having such a broad definition of what a PDA, smartphone, horseless carriage etc is; a definition that covers such a wide range of objects that it becomes meaningless to the point of absurdity.

"It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth".
Lord Chesterfield

Reply to this comment

Saturated Market?

DavisC @ 5/2/2006 9:28:55 PM # Q
How much of the decline may be attributed to the normal, everyday person who bought a pda within the last several years, and is still using the same device? I'm like a lot of other enthusiasts on these boards, I've gone through many, many models (Palm and PocketPC). But a great many of my business colleagues and friends are still using the devices they bought years ago. Plus, many have migrated to the converged device. (Not for me, I need that big, luscious screen). Perhaps the market is just saturated??

RE: Saturated Market?
Simony @ 5/2/2006 11:26:48 PM # Q
Ditto that.

Somehow they need to find a way to get handhelds into the hands of people who have never tried such products before. The z22 seems like a good bet in terms of trying to expand the market. But the problem is that Palm seems to be devoting it's limited marketing budget to pushing Treos. (Makes sense, if the margin on Treos is greater.) But if they don't try harder to invrease the user base, all the stories about the dying handheld market will become self-fulfilling prophesies.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their profits.

RE: Saturated Market?
SeldomVisitor @ 5/3/2006 6:53:04 AM # Q
Most people - the VAST majority of people - have little to no need for a handheld.

In fact, I wonder what the "profile" of a consistent handheld user is?

I bet the #1 hit is "student" followed by "someone who is travelling most of the time" with every other user a distant third.

For those who stay, usually, within a 50-mile radius of home a handheld is overkill.

[spoken as someone who bought a handheld and almost immediately stopped using it because the home and work computers available were better at everything it could do]

RE: Saturated Market?
joad @ 5/3/2006 9:49:18 PM # Q
PDAs are often overkill, and if they remain functional (and designs staid) there's little incentive to buy another one each year just to increase the constant "headcount" of silly surveys such as these.

Back in the late 1990's and early 2000's we had a lot of improvements in PDAs. Now it's a mature market, subtle improvements (and even backward moves like NVFS and eliminating vibrating alarms) so people hold on to their old ones, buy good used models, or smartphones.

Noobies to PDAs are higher fruit in a dying economy with gasoline doubled in price in a year ($3.58/gallon today here). If ExxonMobil steals your "toy" money, you consider all other purchases much more carefully.

Reply to this comment

Mio is a GPS PND company

mbuhboot @ 5/3/2006 8:21:57 AM # Q
Palm, HP and DELL are stupid not to realize that PDA have transform into a GPS devices. 90% of Mio sales are coming from GPS enabled devices like the 168, 169, 180, A201, 136 (WinCE device), 138 and many more.

What Palm need is a TX with a built in GPS for $350, TE2 with built in GPS for $250 and a zire 22 with a larger screen and a GPS for $150. That will allow them to increase sales.

Moshe

RE: Mio is a GPS PND company
ChiA @ 5/3/2006 10:55:04 AM # Q
Palm, HP and DELL are stupid not to realize that PDA have transform into a GPS devices.

An interesting point which leads to the question: Just how well are Garmin's GPS Palm OS handhelds selling?
The answer appears to be they're selling well enough for Garmin to introduce new models but Garmin still appears to be a very long way off from selling as many handhelds as Palm.

If what mbuhboot is true and the profitable future of handhelds is in GPS, then Palm can do the sensible thing and acquire Garmin or at least its handheld business.

I personally, I'm not convinced that GPS will save the handheld, after all, smartphones (including the Treo 650) can be used with GPS receivers too.

RE: Mio is a GPS PND company
Surur @ 5/3/2006 1:28:31 PM # Q
More likely the future of PDA's is in added features. Calender and contacts etc are not useful enough to most people. For PDA's to survive they need to add gimmicks like GPS, media players, camera picture viewers, TV tuners etc etc.

One has to wonder if the struggle is really worth it.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

Even better...
hkklife @ 5/3/2006 2:08:47 PM # Q
An even better question for the short term--when (IF?) is the Garmin iQue 3000 going to ship? I mean it was announced/shown at January CES and supposed to be available in the Jan/Feb timeframe. Then they delayed it to March. Here it is in May and they are still nowhere in sight.

My prediction? The units already produced & sitting in a warehouse somewhere will end up being marked down & blown out as an "exclusive" Amazon/Overstock/Bass Pro/QCV offering. Garmin will then make a very quiet withdrawal from the POS market to focus on their own surprisingly feature-rich GPS car units & a few WinMob devices.

GPS is not the answer for PDAs. I think more of a back to basics approach would be the best strategy. Let PDAs offer better battery life than cell phones or smartphones, larger/sharper/brighter screens and utterly reliable operation (regardless of OS).

I think the dedicated PDA market could split two ways--basic $100 Zire type units for students/casual business users/soccer moms and then really high-end LD-style (but more rugged & more reliable) units for media affecionados and/or vertical applications.

Someone could take a LD type unit, stick WinMob/Linux etc on it, add a BIG removable battery and a CF slot and sell one version to portable media junkies. The other version with a larger screen and ruggedized design would be ideal for field techs, outdoorsmen etc.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

RE: Mio is a GPS PND company
AdamaDBrown @ 5/3/2006 3:30:10 PM # Q
Well, they certainly aren't having manufacturing problems. I've had a review unit in my hands for several weeks now. Beats me why they're not selling them.

RE: Mio is a GPS PND company
hkklife @ 5/4/2006 5:55:39 PM # Q
Adama;

Inital impressions on the iQue? When is the review going to hit BargainBrighthand.com?
;-)



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

Reply to this comment

saturated market

stanner91 @ 5/3/2006 6:47:25 PM # Q
Seldom Visitor posted:

"Most people - the VAST majority of people - have little to no need for a handheld.
In fact, I wonder what the "profile" of a consistent handheld user is?
I bet the #1 hit is "student" followed by "someone who is travelling most of the time" with every other user a distant third.
For those who stay, usually, within a 50-mile radius of home a handheld is overkill.

I wouldn't take that bet. A larger number of people don't travel very far for work but use a PDA daily: healthcare professionals.

They are an extremely convient, portable way to carry a large amount of data (patient info, reference texts, even photos). Most don't need or want anything fancy (maybe at larger institutions WiFi/BT is helpful in accessing the hospital's patient charts/labs/xrays). They just want one that will work.

I think should improve the basics: increasing battery life, a user replaceable battery, reliability, and user-friendly interface, etc. rather than chasing what everyone else is doing.



Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-Albert Einstein

RE: saturated market
joad @ 5/3/2006 10:02:12 PM # Q
"For those who stay, usually, within a 50-mile radius of home a handheld is overkill."

This is a very wierd comment, but if it's a common misperception might shed light on waning sales.

I like having access to my phone book, checkbook, calendar, etc. wherever I am - even at home - without needing to boot up a computer or carry around a huge leather organizer, or an unreplaceable checkbook register.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I'm still basically with Jeff Hawkins' original concept of the things, no matter if they have bolted on a radio to some models. It's an easily portable portal to important information that I often need, and it's backed up. I don't need to be 50 miles from home to find that useful.

RE: saturated market
SeldomVisitor @ 5/4/2006 7:31:34 AM # Q
My medical office uses Origami-sized (maybe a smidgen smaller) devices. I've seen other medical staff using handhelds though most were Blackberries of some flavor. And I've seen numerous locations where medical staff uses laptops on carts or any of the multitude of PC-like interfaces distributed around the location (hospital/clinic/whatever). But "medical personnel" is WAY down on the list of users, I'd still bet - students and travellers being at the top.

> ...I like having access to my phone book, checkbook, calendar,
> etc. wherever I am - even at home - without needing to boot up a
> computer or carry around a huge leather organizer, or an
> unreplaceable checkbook register...

I don't call enough people to need a phone book while I'm not at work or home, nor do I need a checkbook register anywhere but home, nor a calendar (though my phone does indeed have one). Folks who need such things "on the run" are UNDOUBTEDLY way down on the list of endusers of handhelds (not nonexistent, just of few numbers - and THAT is the whole point of a "Who uses handhelds anyway?" subthread...).

Reply to this comment

Race to ZERO

Gekko @ 5/3/2006 10:03:43 PM # Q

PDA's are DEAD. Smartphones rule.

There's no reason to buy/manage/charge/carry/sync/fight/fumble with 2+ devices when ONE Smartphone can do it all.

It's over, Vampire. It's OVER!!!!!!!

http://www.wavcentral.com/sounds/movies/first_blood/fbover.mp3



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