Shipments reached only 8.7 million units in 2004, down from 10 million in 2003, the high-tech market research firm says. The outlook for upcoming years is not good, as the PDA market will have a negative Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of -21.5% during the 2004-2009 period.
By 2009, it is expected that this segment will be composed of devices designed for specific vertical markets and low-end products. The market decline will occur as users switch to other products, such as smartphones and portable media players, a natural evolution of the category.
In-Stat has also found that:
- Manufacturers will introduce more corporate-focused and niche-focused devices, such as those incorporating GPS, this year.
- Intel's XScale processors continue to be the most popular; however, most manufacturers are using processors from several vendors across their product lines.
- Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular wireless devices will be offered by more traditional PDA vendors as they look to compete in the smartphone market.
- By the end of 2005 there will be significant price reductions and more stylishly designed smartphones, thus attracting more users from PDAs to this category.
