NEW YORK-The market for personal digital assistants should level off to only 20 million in the United States by 2008, with population penetration around 7 percent, according to a new report.
“Basic PDAs with excellent PIM functionality will continue to make up the majority of sales while higher-end devices will remain in niche markets only,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director for Jupiter Research, the firm behind the study. “But as phones with integrated and functional PDA capability come into the market, they can spur growth opportunities for vendors while eschewing other less-desirable features such as game play or media integration.”
According to Jupiter Research, a division of Jupitermedia Corp., the installed base of handheld PDAs numbered just more than 14 million at the end of last year. The firm said the adoption of such devices will increase as their size and complexity of use decrease.
Such predictions have been previously voiced and are bolstered by slowing PDA sales. Conversely, most researchers predict the market for mobile phones and smart phones will see massive growth during the coming years.
