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PDA shipments sink in Q3; Sony tops HP

October 31 2002 - Gartner Dataquest today revised its report on third quarter (Q3) 2002 PDA shipments, released Tuesday, due to revised numbers from HP. Dataquest's restated numbers show worldwide PDA shipments totaled 2.55 million units, a decrease of 2.4 percent from the same period last year. In the U.S. PDA market, shipments totaled 1.21 million, a 1.4 percent decrease.

HP's worldwide shipment numbers were lowered by 89,000 (approximately 23 percent) from previous estimates due to a discrepancy in its earlier tabulations. The new results drop HP to the No. 3 PDA vendor worldwide, and move Sony up into the No. 2 position (see Table 1). At the top spot, Palm's market share has improved to 31.7 percent worldwide and 41.7 percent in the U.S. PDA market (see Table 2).

Palm surpassed 30 percent market share in the third quarter, while Sony and Toshiba showed the strongest growth in the quarter with increases of 280 percent and 1,705 percent, respectively. Toshiba is a relatively new market entrant, which explains the high initial growth rate.

Palm is not as dominant as it once was, but it still shipped more than twice as many units in the third quarter as the No. 2 vendor, Sony. "Palm engaged in significant promotional activity in the third quarter to reduce inventories and make room for new models," says Dataquest's Todd Kort. "Sony PDA shipments have nearly tripled since the third quarter of 2001. Sony has been averaging about one new model launched every month of 2002."

Worldwide PDA Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q02 (Units)

Company 3Q02 Shipments 3Q02 Market Share (%) 3Q01 Shipments 3Q01 Market Share (%) Growth (%)
Palm 808,805 30.6 754,810 31.7 7.2
Sony 344,963 13.5 90,690 3.5 280.0
HP 292,850 11.5 317,890 12.1 -7.9
Toshiba 144,391 5.7 8,000 0.3 1,705.0
Handspring 100,100 3.9 353,642 13.5 -71.7
Others 863,523 33.8 1,093,786 41.8 -21.0
Total 2,554,932 100.0 2,618,818 100.0 -2.4

The Palm OS accounted for 50.2 percent of the worldwide PDA market in 2002, compared to 28.3 percent for Microsoft Windows CE. In the U.S. PDA market, Palm OS comprised 69.5 percent of all PDA shipments, while Windows CE was on 19.7 percent of PDAs shipped.

US PDA Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q02 (Units)

Company 3Q02 Shipments 3Q02 Market Share (%) 3Q01 Shipments 3Q01 Market Share (%) Growth (%)
Palm 505,000 39.4 479,000 41.7 5.4
Sony 190,000 19.8 150,000 12.2 27.0
HP 117,000 9.7 150,000 12.2 -22.0
Toshiba 80,000 6.6 276,000 22.5 -71.0
Handspring 70,180 5.8 NA NA NA
Others 197,806 16.3 272,753 22.2 -27.5
Total 1,209,986 100.0 1,227,753 100.0 -1.4

Note: Tables do not include smartphones such as Kyocera 6035, Samsung I-300, and Handspring Treo 180. Source: Gartner Dataquest (October 2002)


 
 
 
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