Handhelds slump, Palm and Sony gain market share
I guess I was on the right track when I ordered a Sony Clie (although not this latest model) from Amazon since my Palm V was pretty much dead and I didn't want to spend much more for a combo PDA-phone yet, which is what Handspring is beginning to focus on with its Treo Communicators (competing directly with Danger's T-Mobile Sidekick). According to this recent Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
According to the IDC numbers, which were obtained by the Wall Street Journal, 2.44 million hand-held computers were sold world-wide in the third quarter, down from 2.59 million a year ago, and down from 2.62 million in the second quarter.
Weili Su, an analyst at IDC, attributed the shipment drops to the poor economy. "The market just isn't picking up," she said. She forecast that fourth-quarter shipments of hand-held gadgets would be flat from a year ago.
Amid the overall slump, some hand-held computer makers gained market share over the past year. Palm Inc. retained its spot as the market leader by shipping 824,000 units in the third quarter, a 33.8% market share. In the same period a year ago, Palm shipped 753,000 units. Sony Corp. also made share gains, becoming the No. 2 vendor by shipping 350,000 units in the third quarter and taking a 14.4% share. It's a major advance for Sony, which a year ago wasn't even in the top five of companies shipping hand-helds.