PDAs Becoming Irrelevant, Study Says
PDAs are moving toward irrelevance, a new study by In-Stat released this week says.
Other studies in the last two years have shown flat sales for PDAs, the new study says the devices are entering a stage of serious decline. In-Stat reported that PDA shipments in 2004 were only 8.7 million, compared to 10 million in 2003.
The study predicted a negative annual growth rate of 21.5 percent through 2009. After that time, PDAs will be sold only for specific vertical markets, according to the study. As a result, In-Stat said, the PDA will soon stop being considered a major product segment.
The report attributed the decline of PDAs to increased sales of devices such as smartphones and portable media players, which it described as a "natural evolution" of the PDA. It said the trend will accelerate by the end of 2005, in which the study predicted the price of smartphones to decline significantly.
