Worldwide Handheld Shipments Gain Slightly
The worldwide market for handheld devices experienced a slight sequential gain in the second quarter of 2004, but, despite strong shipments from top 5 vendors including palmOne, was unable to post a year-over-year increase. According to IDC, device shipments increased 3.2% sequentially and dropped 2.2% year-over-year in 2Q04 to 2.2 million units.
The most significant development during the quarter was Sony's announcement that, with the exception of Japan, it would be withdrawing from the handheld device market. The decision, prompted by Sony's difficulties gaining share in the mature handheld device market, resulted in top vendor palmOne emerging as the only major Palm OS-powered vendor in the market. While it remains unclear as to what degree Sony's departure aided palmOne's increase in shipments during the quarter, the burden is clearly on palmOne to pick up Sony's loyal user base during the second half of the year, or to lose them to the competition.
"Despite continuing developments in device technology and simultaneous declines in price points, handheld devices still face stiff competition from an increasing range of converged mobile devices capable of performing basic handheld tasks," said David Linsalata, analyst in IDC's Mobile Devices program. "The key to success for handheld device vendors lies in the complementary integration of advanced technology with improved solutions, such as the GPS bundles embraced by vendors such as HP and palmOne, that will enable the handheld device to evolve beyond its core PIM functionality."
Vendor Highlights
palmOne - Although palmOne's shipments increased only 0.6% year-over-year, the vendor was able to achieve sequential growth of 14.1% and a resulting market share gain of 4.0% during the second quarter of 2004. palmOne's challenge in the second half of 2004 will be to maintain its recent momentum while taking advantage of the imminent reality of becoming the only major Palm OS vendor in the handheld market.
Hewlett Packard - Despite an 8.2% sequential drop in shipments in the second quarter and a corresponding drop in market share of 3.0% to 24.1%, HP was able to increase shipments 39.2% year-over-year. HP remains well-positioned for the future and expects to begin shipping a range of new handhelds in the third quarter of the year.
Sony - Sony's position in the handheld market slipped 1.6% to a market share of 7.8% on a shipment decline of 14.6% sequentially and 33.2% year-over-year. Although certain regions continued to experience strong shipments of handheld devices, it will be difficult for Sony to maintain the number 3 spot as Dell pushes its new device and news of Sony's pending departure from the handheld market continues to impact the market.
Dell - Year-over-year shipment growth of 4.6% was not enough to save Dell from a 7.8% sequential drop, resulting in a slight loss of 0.8% in market share. However, Dell's newest flagship handheld, the X30, is expected to continue to build momentum in the next quarter and help the company improve its market standing.
Medion - After dropping shipments significantly in the first quarter of the year, relative-newcomer Medion recaptured the fifth spot from Toshiba with a market-leading, year-over-year growth rate of 67.3%.
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Handheld Device Shipments and Market Share, 2Q 2004 (Preliminary)
Rank Vendor 2Q 2004 Shipments 2Q 2004 Market Share
1 palmOne 924,364 42.0%
2 Hewlett-Packard 530,239 24.1%
3 Sony 171,513 7.8%
4 Dell 145,071 6.6%
5 Medion 90,325 4.1%
Other 341,461 15.5%
Total 2,202,973 100.0%
Source: IDC, July 27, 2004
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Palm OS
http://www.mozilla.org
RE: Palm OS
Contractors and outdoor enthusiasts would be all over something like this. Heck, assuming Nextel had an appropriately BT-equipped phone, it'd make a nice tagteam with one of these handhelds.
RE: Palm OS
--
Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770 > T625 > NR70 > e310 > T/T > h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630
Palm needs to slow down
RE: Palm needs to slow down
OS6
RE: OS6
I am assuming they are just seeling a rebadged Asus PPC or something for European markets. People over there don't think twice about buying a PC or a PDA at a grocery store (if the price is right) unlike the USA.
RE: OS6
So far I have only seen one Medion and its made by HTC similar to a HP h1940 (except the buttons). Its sold as a GPS package.
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Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770 > T625 > NR70 > e310 > T/T > h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630
RE: OS6
RE: OS6
They were offering, during the 2 weeks or so that I was there, a sat speaker/sub/DVD player combo (like what you can get for $100 here from some no-name brand rebadger like Koss, Apex etc), a 3 or 4 megapixel camera, and a cheaper desktop Intel CPU-based laptop. So I suppose the Germans like to buy their stuff along with groceries more so than in the UK where the retail market (based on the little I have seen) more closely resembles the US-proper electronic chains etc.
At any rate, Medion has at least some presence in the USA. Their PC boxes in Costco last year also displayed "PC assembled in Germany from worldwide suppliers" or something to that effect ;-)
RE: OS6
http://usa.aldi.com/special_purchases_01/index.html
Too bad they aren't a licensee of POS!
RE: All alone
Where is the competition? Palmone really needs someone on their heels to force them to continue to innovate.
RE: All alone
OB
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Any device can have one more useful feature added.
HandEra Moderator at [url="http://www.PalmVenue.com/forum"]PalmVenue[/url]
RE: All alone
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PalmOne Tungsten T3/256Mb Panasonic SD; HP h4150/512Mb Sandisk Ultra-II, Sony Ericsson T630
Spin this one
Way to put a bright headline on that one...especially since the article points out that this first-to-second quarter gain is seen in most companies.
I look to you guys for "News" not "Spin"
No Spin Zone - PalmOne LOST Market Share
Gartner Sees Big Handheld Growth
By Troy Wolverton
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
7/29/2004 4:12 PM EDT
The market for handheld computers may be staging a comeback, thanks in large part to Research In Motion (RIMM:Nasdaq - news - research), according to data released today by Gartner.
Handheld makers shipped 2.75 million personal digital assistants (PDAs) in the second quarter, up 12% from the same period a year ago, according to Gartner.
Research In Motion's shipments grew 289% to 510,000 units, making it the third-largest handheld maker in terms of volume. In terms of units, RIM's shipments increased by nearly 380,000 -- or about 1.3 times the total amount by which overall handheld shipments increased.
Gartner attributed RIM's success to growing business demand for handhelds.
"The second-quarter results show a continuing shift from what has been a predominantly consumer market to a market in which more than one-third of all PDA purchases are made by organizations," said Gartner analyst Todd Kort in a statement.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ:NYSE - news - research) and Dell (DELL:Nasdaq - news - research) also gained share in the quarter, according to Gartner.
H-P, the No. 2 handheld maker in terms of volume, shipped 529,773 units in the quarter, up 38.9% from the second quarter last year. Meanwhile, Dell shipped 147,500 handhelds, up 6.5%. H-P's market share was 19.3% in the quarter, while Dell's was 5.4%.
Market share losers included PalmOne (PLMO:Nasdaq - news - research) and Sony (SNE:NYSE - news - research), according to Gartner. PalmOne's shipments declined 3.2% to 913,202, giving it a 33.2% share of the market.
Sony, which announced last month that it was exiting the PDA market, saw its shipments decline 35.9% to 174,804 units. The consumer electronics giant held a market share of 6.4% in the quarter, good enough for fourth place.
Gartner's data stands in contrast to research released earlier this week by IDC. IDC reported that handheld shipments declined 2.2% in the second quarter from the same period last year to 2.2 million units worldwide.
The difference between IDC's numbers and Gartner's figures largely has to do with how the two research firms classify RIM's Blackberry device, IDC analyst David Linsalata said. While Gartner categorizes the Blackberry as a handheld, IDC considers it to be a "converged" device, and doesn't include its shipments in its PDA totals, Linsalata said.
Despite Gartner's data indicating a sales decline, PalmOne's stock rose $3.37, or 9%, to $40.87 Thursday. H-P's stock was also trading higher, gaining 28 cents, or 1.4%, to $20.21.
Dell, RIM and Sony all traded lower: Dell fell 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $35.26; RIM slid 46 cents, or 0.7%, to $61.76, and Sony shed 76 cents, or 2.2%, to $34.27.
http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/tech/hardware/10175281.html
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Why do they skipped the new Cobalt launches?
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