Gartner Dataquest Says Worldwide PDA Market Suffers Through a Dismal Year
in 2002
Sales Decline As Enterprises Are Slow to Purchase PDAs
SAN JOSE, Calif., January 27, 2003 - The PDA industry suffered through a difficult
year as worldwide shipments totaled 12.1 million units in 2002, a 9.1 percent decline
from 2001 results, according to preliminary results from Dataquest Inc., a unit
of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). Gartner Dataquest analysts said the industry
has been impacted by the slow adoption of PDAs by enterprises.
"We estimate that about 70 percent of all PDAs are purchased by consumers and only
30 percent by enterprises," said Todd Kort, principal analyst for Gartner Dataquest's
Computing Platforms Worldwide group. "The more lucrative enterprise market has been
stagnant because of poor economic conditions and a perception that PDAs are not
yet capable of delivering sufficient return on investment. The enterprise market
is still another year away from embracing PDAs."
Palm's worldwide PDA shipments declined 12.2 percent in 2002, but it still shipped
more than twice as many units as its nearest competitor (see Table 1). Toshiba,
which began shipping PDAs in late 2001 in Japan, saw rapid growth as it became the
No. 5 vendor worldwide in 2002.
Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PDA Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2002 (Units)
| Company |
2002 Shipments |
2002 Market Share (%) |
2001 Shipments |
2001 Market Share (%) |
Growth (%) |
| Palm |
4,438,730 |
36.8 |
5,055,918 |
38.1 |
-12.2 |
| Hewlett-Packard |
1,628,729 |
13.5 |
2,236,667 |
16.9 |
-27.2 |
| Sony |
1,332,666 |
11.0 |
506,358 |
3.8 |
163.2 |
| Handspring |
698,228 |
5.8 |
1,371,028 |
10.3 |
-49.1 |
| Toshiba |
450,298 |
3.7 |
12,000 |
0.1 |
3,652.5 |
| Casio |
396,890 |
3.3 |
514,594 |
3.9 |
-22.9 |
| RIM |
272,450 |
2.3 |
391,996 |
3.0 |
-30.5 |
| Nokia |
267,310 |
2.2 |
320,000 |
2.4 |
-16.5 |
| Hi-Tech Wealth |
257,378 |
2.1 |
203,090 |
1.5 |
26.7 |
| Sharp |
226,300 |
1.9 |
265,300 |
2.0 |
-14.7 |
| Others |
2,097,396 |
17.4 |
2,392,571 |
18.0 |
-12.3 |
| Total |
12,066,375 |
100.0 |
13,269,522 |
100.0 |
-9.1 |
Note: Does not include smart phones such as Handspring Treo 300.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (January 2003)
In the U.S. market, Sony jumped from the No. 6 position in 2001 to the No. 2 position
in 2002, as its shipments increased 351.8 percent (see Table 2). Despite a 10.4
percent decline in shipments, Palm maintained about a 1.8 million-unit gap relative
to its nearest competitor, Sony.
Table 2
Preliminary U.S. PDA Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2002 (Units)
| Company |
2002 Shipments |
2002 Market Share (%) |
2001 Shipments |
2001 Market Share (%) |
Growth (%) |
| Palm |
2,750,000 |
46.0 |
3,068,000 |
47.5 |
-10.4 |
| Sony |
881,000 |
14.7 |
195,000 |
3.0 |
351.8 |
| Hewlett-Packard |
677,828 |
11.3 |
1,236,339 |
19.1 |
-45.2 |
| Handspring |
520,000 |
8.7 |
967,560 |
15.0 |
-46.3 |
| Toshiba |
236,989 |
4.0 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| RIM |
196,000 |
3.3 |
340,000 |
5.3 |
-42.4 |
| Casio |
133,000 |
2.2 |
272,241 |
4.2 |
-51.1 |
| Symbol |
121,936 |
2.0 |
102,000 |
1.6 |
19.5 |
| Sharp |
54,000 |
0.9 |
23,000 |
0.4 |
134.8 |
| Dell |
51,000 |
0.9 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Others |
351,606 |
5.9 |
255,453 |
4.0 |
37.6 |
| Total |
5,973,359 |
100.0 |
6,459,593 |
100.0 |
-7.5 |
NA = Not applicable
Note: Does note include smart phones such as Handspring Treo 300.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (January 2003)
In the PDA operating system market, Palm OS shipments totaled 6.7 million units,
which represented 55.2 percent of worldwide shipments. Windows CE totaled 3.1 million
units, which accounted for 25.7 percent of all PDA units.
A lack of significant progress in wireless PDA technologies has resulted in some
companies waiting to purchase these devices.
"Wireless infrastructure is still immature, and wireless data security issues have
not been fully resolved," Kort said. "End users still have too many hassles getting
wireless devices properly configured. On top of this, wireless data speeds are typically
much less than advertised, and costs per megabyte are relatively high, especially
in the United States."
Additional information is available in the Gartner Dataquest Perspective "Worldwide
PDA Market Declined 9.1 Percent in 2002." The report shows how top-tier PDA vendors
performed in 2002, and it also provides a breakout for the fourth quarter of 2002
as well. This research can be purchased on the Internet at www.gartner.com.
Gartner Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and
financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems
and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors
of the global information technology industry.
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