Gartner: Worldwide PDA Shipments Increased 21 Percent in the Third Quarter of 2005

Following on the heels of IDC's numbers last week, Gartner offers its take on the worldwide PDA market. Gartner estimated "shipments totaled 3.45 million units in the third quarter of 2005, a 20.7 percent increase from the same period last year. The market is on pace to reach 15 million units shipped in 2005, surpassing the record 13.2 million units shipped in 2001."

Todd Kort at Gartner said, "The rapid spread of wireless e-mail and use of GPS-enabled PDAs, which offer most of the functionality of dedicated car navigation systems at a fraction of the cost, is propelling the PDA market to record growth. This growth is most noticeable in Europe. In fact, Europe is catching up with North America in terms of usage of PDAs in vertical markets and cellular PDAs."

Gartner's definition of a PDA differs from IDC in that they count devices with telephony features while IDC doesn't. In other words if it's a data-first, voice-second device then it's a PDA.

Table 1
Worldwide: Preliminary PDA Vendor Shipment Estimates, 3Q05 (Units)

Company	3Q05 Shipments	3Q05 Market Share (%)	3Q04 Shipments	3Q04 Market Share (%)	3Q04- 3Q05 Growth (%)
Research In Motion	862,000	25.0	565,000	19.8	52.6
HP	548,338	16.0	692,113	24.2	-20.2
Palm	478,575	13.9	748,950	26.2	-36.1
T-Mobile	206,800	6.0	51,000	1.8	305.5
Nokia	200,000	5.8	-	0.0	NA
Others	1,149,633	33.3	801,744	28.0	43.4
Total	3,449,346	100.0	2,858,807	100.0	20.7

Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 65xx and Nokia 9300. Columns may not add to totals shown because of rounding.
NA = Not applicable
Source: Gartner Dataquest (October 2005)

Table 2
Worldwide: Preliminary PDA Vendor Shipment Estimates by Operating System, 3Q05

Company	3Q05 Shipments	3Q05 Market Share (%)	3Q04 Shipments	3Q04 Market Share (%)	3Q04- 3Q05 Growth (%)
Windows CE	1,693,471	49.2	1,375,866	48.1	23.4
Research In Motion	862,000	25.0	565,000	19.8	52.6
Palm OS	515,175	14.9	850,821	29.8	-39.4
Symbian	200,000	5.8	-	0.0	NA
Linux	24,300	0.7	14,500	0.5	67.6
Others	150,400	4.4	52,620	1.8	185.8
Total	3,449,346	100.0	2,858,807	100.0	20.7

Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 65xx and Nokia 9300. Columns may not add to totals shown because of rounding.
NA = Not applicable
Source: Gartner Dataquest (October 2005)