Worldwide Handheld Shipments Up 25 Percent

Surging sales of Research in Motion's BlackBerry pushed shipments of handhelds up 25 percent in the first quarter of this year.

According to market-research company Gartner, there were 3.4 million handhelds shipped worldwide during this period. This is the best first quarter the Handheld Industry has ever had.

After increasing its shipments by 75.6 percent, RIM is now, for the first time, the number one producer of handhelds in the world.

The maker of the BlackBerry has 20.8 percent of the world market, up from just 14.8 percent in the same quarter of last year.

"PDAs with integrated wireless local area network (LAN) or cellular capabilities accounted for approximately 55 percent of all PDAs shipped in the first quarter of 2005," said Todd Kort, principal analyst in Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide group. "This increase is primarily the result of the growing popularity of wireless e-mail, with users favoring larger displays and QWERTY keyboards that are operated with both hands."

palmOne slipped into second place last quarter after its shipments declined 26.3 percent when compared with the same quarter last year. It now has just 18.0 percent of world handheld shipments, its lowest market share since it entered the market in 1996.

These results do not include the Treo 650, which Gartner classifies as a smartphone. According to Canalys, a rival market research firm, when the Treo 650 is factored in, palmOne's shipments grew 1 percent when compared with the first quarter of 2004.

In third place on Gartner's list is HP, which had 17.6 percent of the world handheld market. Shipments of iPAQs grew 4.4 percent in the previous year.

Strong sales of the 9300 and 9500 Communicators propelled Nokia into fourth place with 9.9 percent of the market.

Rounding out the top five was Dell with 6.3 percent of handheld shipments last quarter. Its shipments grew by 32.9 percent.

As noted earlier, these results do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but do include wireless handhelds, such as the iPAQ h6315 and Nokia 9300.

Competition Between Operating Systems

Microsoft's Windows Mobile is now the most used handheld operating system, with 46 percent of worldwide shipments last quarter.

RIM's BlackBerry platform was in second place, with 20.8 percent.

The Palm OS slipped to third place, due to shipments declining 38.8 percent.

"We expect that palmOne will be adding other operating systems and setting more of its own direction, while PalmSource is redirecting itself toward Linux and smartphones," Mr. Kort said.

More information is available on the Gartner web site.

Related Links

• Symbian Still Leading Mobile Device Market
• Worldwide Handheld Shipments Increased Substantially Last Year
• Will palmOne Become Another Apple?