Framingham, Mass. — The worldwide market for handheld PDAs declined for the fifth consecutive quarter, year-over-year, according to IDC.
PDA shipments fell 12.1 percent for the first quarter of 2005, to 1.9 million units, said the company.Conversely, sales of smartphones or “converged devices” grew 134 percent to 8.4 million units, said the company.
“Unless handheld device vendors can successfully extend the meaningful use of handheld devices beyond PIM, the opportunity for future growth will remain firmly in the converged mobile device segment of the market,” said David Linsalata, research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Devices program.
