The traditional PDA is heading for significant declines in sales, and in fact is nearing the end of its life as a major product segment, according to a newly released In-Stat report, "The PDA Market: 2004 Review and Outlook for 2005 ".

The report compiles research and analyses on the worldwide PDA market, and provides profiles of major vendors and their most recent products. It also discusses market trends, opportunities and challenges facing this mature market. It forecasts unit shipments and revenues for the period 2003 to 2009 and depicts processor market shares and revenue. In addition, it provides a review of the market in 2004, in terms of unit shipments, vendor and operating system market shares and trends.

PDA 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 study says that manufacturers will introduce more corporate-focused and niche-focused devices, such as those incorporating GPS, this year.

The market decline will occur as users switch to other products, such as smartphones and portable media players, a natural evolution of the category.

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular wireless devices will be offered by more traditional PDA vendors as they look to compete in the smartphone market. In-Stat also predicts that 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.