Report shows PDAs becoming obsolete due to iPhone and Treos
By Sean P. Aune
It would seem the PDA may become extinct like the dinosaur if the current trend in sales continues.
According to a report released by IDC, sales of PDAs, such as Palms and HP Ipaqs, has declined for the fifteenth consecutive quarter. Sales for the third quarter of 2007 were actually up 1.5% from the previous quarter, but down 39.3% from the same period last year.
While the converged device market is booming with new devices, like the iPhone, the PDA market is not seeing many new devices. Palm has not released a new model for two years, but in the same time period has released twelve new Treos, its converged smartphone.
These numbers don’t mean that companies are giving up on the market. HP is expanding its popular Ipaq line with a couple of new models, with versions both for consumers and enterprise clients.
This isn’t to say that the PDA market is going to go away any time soon, they are still quite popular in expanding economies, but it seems set to become more and more of a niche market in the majority of the industrialized world.
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Entry was posted
on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
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Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
Stumble It!
March 29th, 2008
PDAs are the desktops of the mobile
world. Once the dominant hardware
platform in their niche, they are being
replaced by the more versatile smartphone.
Just like the laptop is replacing the desk
top in the full sized hardware platform
arena. They will both continue to stay
around, but are definitely not the king of
their respective tech hills anymore.