PDA sales grew by a substantial 25% in the last quarter according to a new report from the Gartner research firm. Blackberry led the way growing exponentially in Western European sales, beating out traditional PDA frontrunner PalmOne and HP.
Sales figures looked really good overall for the companies as when analyzing the new numbers. With over 5 million units sold worldwide the future looks much brighter for the PDA markets, which many thought was about done. With popularity of cell phones with multiple features like calendars, some instant messaging and other internet options, the PDAs looked like they were disappearing. But, like any good creature, they adapted.
PDAs have regained a solid market share for the features they offer over your cell phones. They give you better interfaces for email, browsing the internet and Blackberries even have Yahoo Instant Messenger. They also have better physical features. The keyboards are way better. On many of them now, you get a keyboard with keys for all your letters instead of having to work through the letters like in a traditional cell phone. Gartner gives much credit to the wireless email boom. These puppies are great for that since most of them have WiFi or some other type of wireless capability.
Blackberry moved coolly into the number one slot going from 14.8% to 20.8% while watching Palm drop its market share over 10% going from 30.5% to 18%. HP dropped to third place going from 21% to 17.6%. It would seem the PDA wars are on considering only 3 percentage points separate the top 3 PDA companies. This doesn’t include smartphones though, which many feel is where the market is really going or to some combination of the PDA and the smart phone.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
