Gartner says worldwide PDA shipments grew almost 7 percent in 2004

Led by strong growth by Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry shipments, worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments increased 6.6 percent in 2004, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. An increased average selling price (ASP) drove worldwide PDA revenue to a record US$4.3 billion in 2004, a 16.7 percent increase from the year before. In the fourth quarter of 2004, the ASP of PDAs reached US$353, up 9.4 percent from 2003.

"The PDA market has shifted from unconnected organizers overwhelmingly purchased by consumers to a market in which 44 percent of the devices shipped in 2004 offered integrated wireless area network (WAN) and/or wireless LAN (WLAN) connectivity," said Todd Kort, principal analyst in Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide group. "Wireless PDAs generally have higher ASPs, driving the market to record revenue. Another factor for the increased revenue is that nearly half of all PDAs are now purchased, or reimbursed, by enterprises."

Hewlett-Packard PDAs had an estimated ASP of US$430, producing end-user revenue of US$1.132 billion in 2004, which accounted for 26 percent of PDA revenue (see Table 1). However, RIM experienced the largest growth rate on a revenue and shipment basis.

"A major factor in RIM's recent success has been its ability to rapidly add many new carrier partners, expanding its geographical reach," Mr. Kort said. Approximately 20 percent of RIM's fourth quarter shipments were in Europe, and RIM is poised to become the world's leading PDA vendor, in units and revenue, in 2005.

Preliminary Worldwide PDA Revenue Estimates for 2004 (Millions of U.S. Dollars) 

                         2004     2004      2003      2003  2003-2004

Company                Revenue  Market    Revenue   Market  Growth (%)

                                 Share            Share (%)

                                    (%)

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Hewlett-Packard         1,132     26.1       988      26.5       14.6

palmOne                   838     19.3       926      24.9       -9.4

Research In Motion        806     18.6       239       6.4      236.6

Symbol                    253      5.8       232       6.2        9.0

Dell                      215      4.9       159       4.3       35.3

Others                  1,097     25.3     1,177      31.6       -6.8

Total                   4,342    100.0     3,721     100.0       16.7

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These totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 600 or BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 6315.