FRAMINGHAM, Mass.-New research shows wireless overtaking the traditional personal digital assistant market, and the research firm advises PDA players like Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Palm Inc. to prepare for such a future.
Research company IDC predicts the worldwide PDA market will continue to decline to 11.3 million units this year, a drop of 8.4 percent. The firm said the market will see limited growth next year, but it will likely stabilize to about 15 million units per year.
On the other hand, IDC said smart phones and converged wireless devices will grow to about 13 million units this year on strong sales of Symbian-based devices-overtaking the PDA market. The firm said market growth is expected to remain strong throughout 2007 as a growing percentage of mobile phones adopt high-end operating systems. Indeed, the market’s compound annual growth rate will be nearly 86 percent through the forecast period.
“As device aesthetics and functionality improve and end-user prices continue to decline, converged mobile devices are becoming increasingly accessible to the mainstream consumer and are expected to ship in greater numbers than traditional handheld devices for the first time in 2003,” said Kevin Burden, manager of IDC’s Mobile Device research team.
