(keitai-l) PDA Deathwatch

From: Jim Ayson <jimayson_at_gmail.com>
Date: 06/09/04
Message-ID: <8184d2fd04060818242fb94d5b@mail.gmail.com>
The PDA Deathwatch continues... This is from The Independent (UK)

from:
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=529513&host=3&dir=505

Excerpt:

Charles Arthur On Technology
'Phones today can make calls, take pictures, enter diary items... Why
would anyone buy a handheld computer?'
09 June 2004

Sony sent a shudder through the already rather edgy managers at
PalmSource, the makers of the Palm operating system, when last week it
announced its withdrawal from the European and US PDA (personal
digital assistant - handheld computer, to you and me) markets.

Although the company was at pains to explain that this was a
"tactical" withdrawal, the reality is that it doesn't see any growth
potential for stand-alone PDAs such as its Clié. Indeed, a report by
Canalys, a research company based in London, said that in the first
three months of this year Sony shipped just 202,060 Cliés - down 45
per cent on the previous year.

Nor is this particularly cause for celebration by Microsoft, whose
PocketPC operating system powers the rivals to Palm, such as HP and
Dell. The worldwide PDA market fell by 11 per cent in the first
quarter of this year to 2.2 million devices (although, to be fair, in
Europe shipments rose by 33 per cent, to 852,000). So while the
remaining contestants for PDA sales don't quite look like two bald men
fighting over a comb, the figures hardly suggest a hirsute future for
the handheld market either.

Compare that with 1998: 1.5 million units sold, and the prediction
that by 2003 the market would reach 6.2 million units, having grown by
35 per cent annually, and be worth $5bn worldwide. (It's delightful to
go back to market researchers' predictions and see how wrong they
were.)
Received on Wed Jun 9 04:24:38 2004