PDA sales up? down? whatever

Alexander Turcic · 05-04-2005, 07:05 PM

Believe it or not, but PDA sales are breaking records. At least if you follow Gartner's latest research report:

Worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments totaled 3.4 million units in the first quarter of 2005, a 25 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc. This was the strongest first quarter the industry has experienced.

Of course I'd be more than happy to believe the story. Didn't we all talk about the imminent death of the PDA the other day? Now look at that. A 25% growth to a total of 3,419,112 PDAs shipped in 1Q05.

Look closer. And here is why this report is not worth a plugged nickel:

Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300.

Since when is Nokia a PDA vendor? If I remember correctly, Nokia has never referred to any of its products as a PDA. Smartphone! Nokia talks about smartphones. And adding the Nokia 9300 to the lists and leaving out the Treo 650? How absurd.

The cat is out, now tell me who is sponsoring Gartner's statistics?

TadW · 05-04-2005, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander

The cat is out, now tell me who is sponsoring Gartner's statistics?

Well observed, Alex. I'd say it's definitely not palmOne

TadW · 05-05-2005, 06:30 AM

Everywhere I read headlines saying "RIM's Blackberry Topples PalmOne In Handheld Market" ... heck, if Gartner decides that the Blackberry is a PDA and the Treo is not, I am not surprised.

Why is nobody else questioning the numbers?

timnicholson · 05-05-2005, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TadW

Everywhere I read headlines saying "RIM's Blackberry Topples PalmOne In Handheld Market" ... heck, if Gartner decides that the Blackberry is a PDA and the Treo is not, I am not surprised.

Why is nobody else questioning the numbers?

Primarily because most sites simply post whatever "news" comes through the news wire. Unfortunately, statistics can be manipulated to indicate just about any conclusion you want. Most research firms try to at least be somewhat reasonable with their statistics because they don't want to lose credibility as a "reliable source". However, when it comes to PDA's, Gartner is either completely inept or purposely trying to skew reality for some sort of gain. I wrote an article at PalmZone.net that comes to the same conclusion that the numbers are worthless. In fact, there is another issue with the statistics as well related to fact that this is reporting shipments and not sales. See our article "Stupid Gartner Tricks - Palm OS Marketshare Drops".

Bob Russell · 05-05-2005, 01:02 PM

And InfoWorld is hyping this as RIM taking over the PDA world...
http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatc...es/001350.html

05-04-2005, 07:05 PM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,171 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	PDA sales up? down? whatever Believe it or not, but PDA sales are breaking records. At least if you follow Gartner's latest research report: Worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments totaled 3.4 million units in the first quarter of 2005, a 25 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc. This was the strongest first quarter the industry has experienced. Of course I'd be more than happy to believe the story. Didn't we all talk about the imminent death of the PDA the other day? Now look at that. A 25% growth to a total of 3,419,112 PDAs shipped in 1Q05. Look closer. And here is why this report is not worth a plugged nickel: Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300. Since when is Nokia a PDA vendor? If I remember correctly, Nokia has never referred to any of its products as a PDA. Smartphone! Nokia talks about smartphones. And adding the Nokia 9300 to the lists and leaving out the Treo 650? How absurd. The cat is out, now tell me who is sponsoring Gartner's statistics?

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
May Financials: ebook sales up, bookstore sales down	simplyparticular	News	1	07-14-2010 02:44 PM
Kindle sales monthly sales record in Nov.	kennyc	News	12	11-30-2009 06:18 PM
New IDPF ebook sales figures: June sales surge 87% y-o-y	Smashwords	News	0	09-04-2008 01:15 PM

05-05-2005, 06:30 AM	#3
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	Everywhere I read headlines saying "RIM's Blackberry Topples PalmOne In Handheld Market" ... heck, if Gartner decides that the Blackberry is a PDA and the Treo is not, I am not surprised. Why is nobody else questioning the numbers?

05-05-2005, 01:02 PM	#5
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	And InfoWorld is hyping this as RIM taking over the PDA world... http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatc...es/001350.html

Advert

Advert