ZDNet UK


Skip to Main Content

ZDNet.co.uk - Winner of Best Business Website 2007
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Blogs
  4. Reviews
  5. Prices
  6. Resources
  7. Community
  8. My ZDNet

 

ZDNet UK RSS Feeds


IT Jobs

Mobile devices Toolkit

Smartphone boom 'won't hurt handhelds'

Staff, CNETAsia CNET News.com

Published: 10 Sep 2003 12:20 BST

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendly
  • Post Comment

Analysts ABI research have said that the PDA market will continue to grow, countering recent studies which predict a decline in the market as smartphones grow more popular.

Wirelessly connectivity and new features such as satellite location will save the day. In fact, wireless handhelds, which ABI dubs "connected PDAs", will comprise over half the market in 2006, said ABI.

"The emergence of converged devices, such as the connected PDA, may be the latest relief the industry has been seeking," said analyst Kenil Vora in the report.

To date, connected PDAs have not been popular because of limitations in technology. But new devices like the upcoming Treo 600 will help give a much-needed boost to sales of wireless handhelds, said the report.

The Treo 600 handheld from Handspring, soon to be acquired by Palm, features voice and cellular connectivity.

The overall PDA market is expected to grow to $10bn (£6.29bn) by 2008, with a major portion derived from wireless handhelds, said the report.

"ABI research contends that this market will actually experience modest growth of 8 percent CAAG through 2008," said the report.

ABI's research diverges from the view of analysts IDC, which sees stagnation in the PDA market caused by the rising popularity of "converged" mobile phones, which combine organiser functions with the ability to make phone calls.

For 2003, worldwide shipments of PDAs are expected to decline 8.4 percent, to 11.35 million units from 12.4 million units last year. Growth and unit volumes of handhelds have reached their ceiling, according to IDC.

ABI defines connected PDAs as converged devices with a PDA-based operating system, like that of Palm OS or Microsoft's Pocket PC. Smartphones are more like standard cellular handsets and employ a system such as Symbian or the Microsoft's Smartphone.

In addition to getting a boost from sales of wireless handhelds, PDA sales will be boosted by innovations such as telematics, satellite location, barcode scanning, RFID (radio frequency ID) tracking and digital photography, according to ABI.

Smartphones will continue to represent only a small portion of the mobile phone market, said Vora.

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendly Print with Dell

Did you find this article useful?
55 out of 131 people found this useful


Full Talkback thread

1 comment

  1. The definition of a "smartphone" used by ABI is ab... gfunkmaigc

Company/Topic Alerts

Create a new alert from the list below:



Related Jobs

C# Developer Commodities London

TEAMLOG UK Ltd offers to develop your business expertise and boost your professional career via an international experience, adequate training and ...

Business Analyst Fixed Income / IRD London

TEAMLOG UK Ltd offers to develop your business expertise and boost your professional career via an international experience, adequate training and ...

Server Architect - C# ASP.NET SQL - Redhill (Surrey) - 50k - 60k

My client provides location awareness to everyday consumer devices and applications in a connected world. C# .NET 2.0 / 3.0 Server Architect To ...

Featured Talkback

Put simply, what is the compelling reason to pay ~$200 extra for an Eee with Windows XP? A Windows Eee won't come with any useful applications and you'll have to buy anti-virus software to boot. The truth about low cost computing is that nobody really cares whether the machine is running Windows or Linux as long as its cheap, its easy to use and it works.

By: dogStar

Read full story:
Asus to ship 60 percent of Eee PCs with Windows XP

On The Road Blog

Mobile Security Expert: Your Camera Ph...

Mobile Security Expert: Your Camera Phone Got Hacked Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com Have you ever heard someone say “I’d like to be a fly on the wall in that room.”?... More

Post a comment

Eee 1000 + iPhone 3G = the ultimate mo...

Having left the comforting bosom of ZDNet.co.uk to strike out on my own as a freelance journalist recently, I found myself contemplating a shocking truth – I was going to have to shell... More

Post a comment

Think Your Skype Call is Secure? Read...

There is growing, and credible, speculation that Skype has built in a back door to allow monitoring of SKype calls. Heise Online has a good article about it. So, what we have now... More

Post a comment

Discussions

319762 319762

Eve of Distraction

Saturday 26 July 2008, 4:37 AM

1 comment
harpless harpless

SAP goes big business

Friday 25 July 2008, 6:17 PM

1 comment