IDC: Handheld market continues to decline
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 27, 2005 at 8:43am
The worldwide market for handheld devices experienced its seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline in the third quarter of 2005. According to IDC’s “Worldwide Handheld QView” report, device shipments decreased 16.9 percent year over year and fell 8.8 percent sequentially in the third quarter of 2005 to 1.6 million units.
Even as the overall market continues to trend downwards, device manufacturers are steadily pushing forward with new product introductions, software upgrades, and solution deployment, particularly GPS. Given these improvements and the upcoming holiday season, shipments are expected to increase sequentially but decline year over year in the fourth quarter, IDC says. At the same time, the growth of converged mobile devices, which combine voice and data capabilities in a single form factor, is placing heightened pressure on the handheld market. Those vendors who offer both devices are starting to see shipments of converged mobile devices equal or surpass shipments of handheld devices.
“The combination of tremendous competition from converged mobile devices with waning consumer demand for handhelds is forcing manufacturers to search for new or improved solutions that leverage existing hardware and software capabilities,” said Ramon Llamas, research analyst in IDC’s Mobile Markets program. “Offering solutions beyond PIM, such as GPS, and reaching out towards first-time users are important steps, but will not necessarily bring about a return to growth. Finding and expanding more solutions to modern mobile consumers and enterprises have become imperatives for the handheld market to drive growth.”
Leading the market is Palm, which experienced a 10.8 percent decline in shipments sequentially and a 22.7 percent decline year over year. For the first time, Palm’s shipments of converged mobile devices outpaced the company’s handheld devices. At the same time, the company augmented its portfolio with two new devices: the Z22, aimed at the first-time user, and the TX, targeted at advanced users on a budget.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
