Smartphones killing off PDAs

Global mobile device sales grew by 51 per cent in the last quarter of 2004 compared to the year before, according to analyst firm Canalys.

But growth was found to be uneven; while sales of smartphones and connected data devices including the Blackberry doubled, unconnected PDA sales rose just five per cent for the year.

Nokia increased its market leading position with strong sales for its Symbian products.

"The next clamshell/keyboard device from Nokia is expected shortly and will further strengthen Nokia's push into the mobile enterprise solution segment," said Chris Jones, Canalys director and senior analyst.

"Motorola also had a good quarter. Shipments of its Windows Mobile and Symbian smartphones were particularly strong in EMEA, and we expect to see its numbers increase during 2005 as more products launch."

Symbian's market share increased again during the quarter, with the operating system shipping on 58 per cent of devices sold. Sales from British firm Sendo and Sony Ericsson were credited for driving demand.

Palm is still the US favourite, but limited availability of the Treo range hurt its position in Europe, making it the number two platform.

Research in Motion continued to chase HP for third place, enjoying a sales increase of 249 per cent on last year compared to HP's one per cent growth.

See also:

PalmOne takes on Apple's iPod

'Mobile manager' bridges gap between smartphone and entertainment device  09 May 2005

Smartphone shipments set to soar

Users will accept limited functionality to save on pocket space  21 Feb 2005

BlackBerry growth fuels PDA bonanza

Worldwide shipments up 17 per cent, reports Gartner  14 Feb 2005

Nokia and RealNetworks talk up alliance

Deal promises media players on more phones  09 Feb 2005

Symbian targets enterprises with tougher OS

Handsets using OS v9 expected in December  03 Feb 2005

HP and Nokia link up paper and digital worlds

Partnership to develop paper-to-mobile workflow technologies  03 Feb 2005

HP to launch smartphone offensive

BlackBerry and Treo should be afraid, analyst predicts  03 Feb 2005

Mobile phones ring up record sales

Shipments up 18 per cent at end of 2004  28 Jan 2005

Skype writes off the telephone

Skype chief executive Niklas Zennström talks to vnunet.com about the company's plans for VoIP  26 Jan 2005

Mobiles under threat from 'airborne viruses'

For once Microsoft is not the target  26 Jan 2005

Worm turns on Symbian mobile phones

Infection spreads via Bluetooth, but does not have malicious payload  11 Jan 2005

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!