Handheld Shipments See Strong Increases in Europe (Updated)

Shipments of both handhelds and smart phones increased by double digits in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region last quarter, according to market-research firm Canalys.

Shipments of handhelds, including cellular-wireless models, increased by 33 percent during the first three months of this year, when compared with the same time period of 2003.

In this region of the world, HP was on top with 29.5 percent of the market. This company saw its shipments increase by 56 percent. This was the third consecutive quarter where it out-shipped palmOne.

In second place was palmOne, with 27.4 percent of all handhelds shipped to the EMEA region. Its shipments increased only a very small amount when compared with the same quarter of last year.

Update: According to IDC, palmOne outshipped HP in Europe last quarter. Reportedly, palmOne shipped 216,500 handhelds during this time period, while HP shipped 196,000 iPAQs. These results are only for Europe, not the whole EMEA region.

According to Canalys, Research in Motion was in third place with 8.0 percent. RIM dramatically increased its share of this market over the last year. During the first quarter of 2003, its BlackBerries made up less than 1 percent of handhelds shipped in the region.

"RIM has made great progress in EMEA over the past year and a half," said Chris Jones, Canalys director and senior analyst. "Lower unit prices, the move to colour displays and voice integration all helped put it in a position where it was ready to take advantage of the return of corporate spending when it came. The increasing awareness among business buyers of the need for security in mobile data solutions plays to its strengths as well. Crucially, it has also expanded its relationships with operators and invested in helping them sell solutions to business customers. Other vendors planning to sell wireless handhelds through the operators should learn from its example."

In fourth place was Dell with 5.1 percent of the market. Shipments of Axims increased 22 percent.

In the battle between handheld operating systems, Pocket PC is definitely way ahead in this region with 57.1 percent of the market. The number of Pocket PCs shipped during this quarter increased by 57%. the Palm OS is in second place with 32.3 percent. Its shipments increased only slightly.

Mobile Phones

Sales of smart phones and feature phones increased by 83 percent during the January-to-March quarter, and these devices continued to greatly outsell handhelds. For example, Nokia sold 2.2 million phones last quarter, while HP sold about 250,000 handhelds.

Not surprisingly, Nokia remains the leader in this category in the EMEA region. It has 73.8 percent of the market, and its shipments increased by almost 90 percent, when compared with the same time period of 2003.

In second place is Sony Ericsson with 10.8 percent of the market, and in third place is Siemens, with 5.1 percent.

The Symbian OS completely dominates this category of devices. Over 91 percent of smart phones and feature phones shipped during the first quarter of this year to this region ran this operating system. Microsoft's Windows Mobile for Smartphone is a very distant second with 7.8 percent of the market, and the Palm OS is barely on the map with 1 percent.

"Having Motorola on board is a big help for Microsoft," said Canalys analyst Rachel Lashford. "Most of Microsoft's smart phone shipments so far have been tied to the Orange network, but with the MPx200 becoming available on other operators' networks and with more models appearing over the coming months, we would expect shipments to increase substantially. palmOne's Treo 600 hasn't done as well in EMEA as elsewhere; it needs more models and broader operator coverage to become a contender in the smart phone space. The momentum in this segment, however, remains with the Symbian-based vendors."

Related Links

• European Handheld Sales See Double-Digit Growth