Gartner: PDA shipments grew by 32 percent in Q3 '06

17.11.2006
Driven by rapid growth in cellular PDAs, worldwide PDA shipments totalled 4.5 million units in the third quarter of 2006, a 31.9 percent increase from the third quarter of 2005, according to Gartner. The average selling price (ASP) of PDAs in the third quarter of 2006 declined by 13 percent from the same period last year to US$351.

'An influx of new cellular PDAs, which are subsidized to some degree by wireless carriers resulted in a significant drop in ASP and pushed the market to the highest shipments level in PDA market history,' says Todd Kort, principal analyst in Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide group. 'An estimated 62 percent of all PDAs shipped in the third quarter offered cellular connectivity, up from 49 percent the same time last year.'

Much of the growth in the PDA market in the third quarter of 2006 was generated by cellular PDAs, such as Danger Inc's. (T-Mobile) Sidekick 3, Nokia E61/E62 and Motorola Q. RIM BlackBerries remained the most popular PDAs, accounting for 21 percent of worldwide PDA shipments in the quarter; however RIM only grew by 10 percent as it continues shifting its product mix toward smartphones. BlackBerry smartphone shipments exceeded 514,000 in the third quarter of 2006, up from 188,000 one year ago.

'The Sidekick has achieved near cult status as a wireless messaging device among the 15-to-25 age group in the U.S., which propelled it to nearly 300 percent growth in the third quarter of 2006,' Kort says. 'We have not seen the consumer marketplace gravitate toward a particular PDA model like this since Palm's peak of popularity over five years ago. The trendiness of this device, combined with substantial pent-up demand, produced a rush to get on board with the new model.'