PDA shipment growth slows

Handsome

PDA shipments are set to grow by 18 per cent this year, according to the crystal ball gazers at Gartner Dataquest.

They reckon some 15.5 million PDAs will be shipped in 2002 - up from 13 million units last year.

While this growth is impressive, Gartner Dataquest notes that it is well down on the 114 per cent growth in shipments recorded in 2000.

That said, analysts reckon the PDA market will firm up in the second half of 2002 before even stronger growth kicks in during 2003 as the economy hopefully recovers.

Gartner Dataquest also reckons that spending on PDAs in set to increase more than 20 percent in 2002, up from $3.8 billion in 2001 to $4.6 billion.

They also predict that the market will continue to edge toward devices that have colour displays, more powerful processors, and more storage capacity.

Interestingly, three out of every four PDAs bought last year were sold to individuals who bought them with their own funds.

The rest were purchased or re-imbursed by enterprises, which are beginning to realise the benefits of applications such as wireless e-mail or accessing corporate databases from remote locations." ®