Specifically, Gartner said Q3-2005 PDA shipments totaled 3.45 million units, a 20.7 percent year-over-year increase. Additionally, Gartner noted that the worldwide PDA market is on track to reach 15 million units shipped for the entire year, an amount that would surpass the previous record of 13.2 million units set in 2001.
Differing viewpointsGartner's bullish PDA market forecast comes against the backdrop of a much gloomier analysis from IDC last week, which reported a continued decline in PDA shipments.
The difference appears to be due to differing definitions. Whereas Gartner sees a record year for PDA shipments in the making, IDC says the worldwide market for handhelds suffered its
seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline, with Q3-2005 shipments down 16.9 percent year-over-year and 8.8 percent sequentially, totalling 1.6 million units in the quarter. Obviously, IDC is counting different devices than Gartner, which found more than twice as many devices (3.45 million) being shipped.
Specifically, IDC's data was for what it calls "standalone" handhelds with no wireless connectivity, whereas Gartner defines a PDA as a "data-centric handheld computer" that "may offer WAN support for voice, [but are] data-first, voice-second devices." Gartner includes devices such as Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phones and RIM Blackberry wireless email devices in its numbers; but IDC does not. Consequently, IDC's top five PDA vendors were Palm, HP, Acer, Dell, and Mio -- all vendors of traditional PDAs. Gartner's top five, on the other hand, are RIM, HP, Palm, T-Mobile, and Nokia -- which clearly includes wireless devices.
Adding smartphones to the mix -- which are primarily phones, and secondarily PDAs -- resulted in an even more optimistic report on handheld market growth, from Canalys which last week reported that the
"converged" handheld market grew 75 percent year-over-year.
In short: the more connectivity the definition of "handhelds" includes, the faster their market grows.
Microsoft on topWith respect to software platform market share, Gartner's reported Q3-2005 data indicates that nearly half of all PDAs shipped worldwide were running some version of Windows CE. The software platform used by Research in Motion (RIM) in its Blackberry device came in second, at around 25 percent of the market.
Worldwide Preliminary PDA Shipment Estimates by Operating System, 3Q-2005 (units)
| OS | Q3-05
shipments | Q3-05 share% | Q3-04 Shipments | Q3-04 share% | Q3-04 to Q3-05 Growth% |
| Windows CE | 1,693,471 | 49.2 | 1,375,866 | 48.1 | 23.4 |
| RIM OS | 862,000 | 25.0 | 565,000 | 19.8 | 52.6 |
| Palm OS | 515,175 | 14.9 | 850,821 | 29.8 | -39.4 |
| Symbian OS | 200,000 | 5.8 | - | 0.0 | NA |
| Linux | 24,300 | 0.7 | 14,500 | 0.5 | 67.6 |
| Others | 150,400 | 4.4 | 52,620 | 1.8 | 185.8 |
(Source: Gartner Dataquest -- October 2005)
Shipments by vendorIn terms of unit shipments by vendor, RIM extended its first place lead with a year-over-year increase of 52.6 percent, accounting for about half of the worldwide growth, Gartner said. However, Gartner noted that Blackberry PDA shipments were up less than 3 percent sequentially, as RIM's product mix began to shift toward smartphones, which now account for an estimated 18 percent of RIM shipments.
Worldwide Preliminary PDA Shipment Estimates by Vendor, 3Q-2005 (Units)
| Vendor | Q3-05
shipments | Q3-05 share% | Q3-04 Shipments | Q3-04 share% | Q3-04 to Q3-05 Growth% |
| RIM | 862,000 | 25.0 | 565,000 | 19.8 | 52.6 |
| HP | 548,338 | 16.0 | 692,113 | 24.2 | -20.2 |
| Palm | 478,575 | 13.9 | 748,950 | 26.2 | -36.1 |
| T-Mobile | 206,800 | 6.0 | 51,000 | 1.8 | 305.5 |
| Nokia | 200,000 | 5.8 | - | 0.0 | NA |
| Others | 1,149,633 | 33.3 | 801,744 | 28.0 | 43.4 |
| Total | 3,449,346 | 100.0 | 2,858,807 | 100.0 | 20.7 |
(Source: Gartner Dataquest -- October 2005)
Palm's decrease of 36 percent dropped it from second to third place behind HP. The Sidekick II and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices were responsible for T-Mobile's spectacular jump into fourth place, according to Gartner.
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