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Pocket PCs Gain Ground in PDA Market

More shoppers are opting for devices based on Microsoft's OS, but Palm-based devices continue to dominate the market.

David Legard, IDG News Service

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PDAs based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system now account for 30 percent of the worldwide PDA market compared to 48.6 percent for PalmSource's market leading Palm OS, according to research released Monday by Dataquest, a unit of research company Gartner.

Pocket PC-based handheld computing systems reached the 30 percent market share level in the third quarter of 2002, up from a 16.2 percent share in the third quarter last year, according to Dataquest figures.

Worldwide sales of PDAs in the third quarter of 2002 reached 2.64 million, 0.9 percent up on the 2.61 million sold in the equivalent quarter last year.

Palm remains the dominant vendor with 809,000 sales, representing a market share of 30.6 percent, more than double its nearest rival Hewlett-Packard, whose 382,000 unit sales represented a 14.4 percent market share.

Sony, Toshiba, and Handspring completed the list of the top five vendors, which between them hold over two-thirds of the market.

Ready for the Challenge

The gain of the Pocket PC OS against Palm was helped by the strong impact made by Toshiba in the market. From a trickle of sales in the third quarter last year, Toshiba has sold 144,000 PDAs this year to garner a 5.5 percent share.

A further challenge to Palm's leadership is expected when Dell Computer releases a Pocket PC-based PDA later this year, Dataquest says.

"After a slow but steady decline, the Palm OS market share appears to have stabilized, but new challenges are on the horizon," Dataquest says in a statement. "Much more competitive pricing from Pocket PC vendors beginning in the fourth quarter of 2002 will undoubtedly stimulate growth in Pocket PC shipments and allow Palm less breathing room. Dell and Toshiba appear ready to lead this battle."

Along with Dell and Toshiba, HP, Casio Computer, and NEC are the major Pocket PC licensees.

Major players in the Palm OS camp include Palm, Handspring, Sony, Kyocera, and Samsung Electronics.

Acer sells both Palm OS and Pocket PC-based PDAs, while Sharp's Zaurus PDA runs a version of the Linux OS.

In the U.S., Palm's dominance is clearer. Palm PDAs have a 39.4 percent market share, and the combined market share of all Palm OS licensees is around 65 percent, boosted by extremely rapid sales growth of Sony PDAs. The U.S. market accounts for just under half of worldwide PDA sales.

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