PDAs, smart phones still flying off the shelves

Demand for smart phones and PDAs is continuing to grow rapidly, according to the latest statistics from analyst house Gartner.

Smart phone sales have already increased by 75.5 per cent in the last year to 37.4 million units, and will grow by a further 66 per cent during 2006, the statistics indicated.

Sales of PDAs also continue to grow - by 5.7 per cent in the last year to 7.4 million units. Growth of 6.3 per cent is predicted for 2006, as PDAs continue to be eclipsed by more voice-centric smart phones.

The distinction between PDAs and smart phones is increasingly unclear, as both product types gain new features and converge on each other.

Gartner defines a smart phone as "a large-screen, voice-centric handheld device designed to offer complete phone functions while simultaneously functioning as a personal digital assistant", and a PDA as "a handheld computer that serves as an organiser and electronic notepad".

But these definitions are less clear than they may appear, as Gartner reported that "53 per cent of all PDAs shipped in the first half of 2006 featured integrated cellular capability, up from 46 per cent during the same period in 2005".

Roberta Cozza, co-author of the report, said on Monday: "We classify them after looking at the primary purpose of the device, which is reflected in the design of the device," adding: "There are users that make their buying decisions after looking at the form factor."

Cozza conceded "all categorisations are, at the end of the day, arbitrary" but insisted Gartner's classifications reflected differing trends between types of devices, noting that Symbian dominates the smart phone market while Microsoft has the lead in the PDA field.

She said: "PDAs started as a consumer phenomenon but are now being more chosen by enterprise users, and this is being driven by wireless email. With regards to smart phones… we see that the market is currently still mostly driven by consumer purchases. What we would expect to see going forward, as Microsoft gets its act together, is more enterprise-grade smart phones in 2007."

The only market where sales of PDAs continue to outstrip those of smart phones is in North America, which represented 45 per cent of the worldwide market for PDAs in the first half of 2006.

The worldwide market leader across both device types continues to be Nokia, which accounted for 42 per cent of PDA and smart phone sales in the first half of 2006 and which represents half the global smart phone market.

However, the fastest growing smart phone vendor is Motorola. It saw shipments rocket by 103.5 per cent in the first half of this year, thanks to sales of Linux-based phones in China. The report's authors note Motorola's Microsoft- and Symbian-based devices have had relatively lacklustre success.

BlackBerry manufacturer RIM continues to command the PDA market with 13.5 per cent year-on-year growth but Palm's share of the PDA market fell "as the company shifted its focus on sales of its Treo smart phones, which accounted for 57 per cent of Palm's mobile device shipments in the first half of 2006", according to principal Gartner analyst Todd Kort.

David Meyer writes for ZDNet UK