Handheld PDA Market Still Shrinking

According to a recent research report, the Handheld PDA market is continuing to decline. Where Handheld is defined as PDA that does not include cellphone features. The reason this definition makes such a difference is that most smartphone users (Palm especially) don't see their smartphone as being "distinct from" or "not a" handheld PDA. It's like a research report saying that "home DVD movies" are dead, because everyone's buying HD-DVD players... Here's news for the researchers... smartphones are still handheld and PDAs!

PDA market still shrinking dramatically with no end in sight
Handheld makers saw their market contract substantially for the fifteenth consecutive quarter, according to a research report released today. The market volume is down about 70% from its peak in 2002 and IDC expects this trend to continue for at least another five years.

Playing in the handheld market today - with “handheld” being defined as a PDA without cellphone capability - isn’t much fun. Once again, the shipment volume of such devices declined significantly in the third quarter of this year.

...

Llamas said that the PDA market is unlikely to go away completely since it still has “a loyal, if shrinking, following in developed economies, especially among enterprise users. In emerging markets, the appeal of the handheld devices seems anchored in the fact that, in the absence of a monthly service plan, it has a lower total cost of ownership compared to mobile phones and/or the converged mobile device."

Be sure to follow the link to read the entire article.