BlackBerry rules as PDA shipments soar

BlackBerry email device rules in the PDA market

PDA shipments grew by 20.7 per cent in the third quarter to 3.45 million units, analyst firm Gartner has reported, fuelled by wireless email and GPS-enabled devices. 

New devices are quickly breaking open the market for GPS navigation systems as they are less expensive than dedicated in-car navigation technology.

Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry devices, further extended its lead to 25 per cent of the overall PDA market, increasing shipments by 52.6 per cent year over year.

HP ranked second with 16 per cent as shipments decreased by 20.2 per cent, and Palm came in third with a 36.1 per cent decline in shipments.

T-Mobile's Sidekick device, together with the operator's branded models of PDAs running Microsoft Pocket PC Phone Edition, propelled T-Mobile to fourth place with a six per cent market share, shipping 206,800 units in the quarter.

The mobile version of Windows held on to first place in the operating system market, upping its share by 1.2 percentage points to 49.2 per cent. RIM's software came in second at 25 per cent followed by Palm OS at 14.9 per cent.

Gartner defines a PDA as a handheld computer allowing the user to install applications. While it may offer a cellular radio for voice calling, its primary use is for data-centric services. This effectively disqualifies the Palm Treo and BlackBerry 7100 smartphones.

Rival analyst IDC last week released its own data for the PDA market, reporting a 16.9 per cent decline in shipments. The firm uses a more stringent definition of the market, excluding any device with telephone capabilities such as the BlackBerry.