PDAs Losing Their Hold on Consumers
The personal digital assistant that only a few years ago was considered a must-have gadget may be on its way to tech obscurity, according to a study released Wednesday.
The study, by market research firm IDC, found that worldwide shipments of the pocket-sized electronic address books and appointment calendars were down for the third straight quarter, as consumers increasingly opted for cellphones that have PDA functions embedded in them.
The author of the study, associate analyst David Linsalata, said PDAs would not disappear in the near future because with prices as low as $99, they offered a low-cost option for consumers.
“But unless someone comes up with some next great thing to drive sales, I don’t think they will return to growth,” Linsalata said.
According to the study by Framingham, Mass.-based IDC, manufacturers shipped 2.1 million PDAs in the third quarter of 2004, down 8.7% from the same period last year. The decline came after drops of 2.2% in the second quarter and 11.7% in the first quarter.
For the year, Linsalata projects PDA makers will ship 9.4 million of the hand-held devices. That would be a 31% drop from 2001, when shipments peaked at 13.6 million.
Analysts attribute the decline partly to falling prices of so-called smart phones, which can do everything a PDA can do and then some. IDC predicts shipments of smart phones to reach 17.7 million this year and climb to 94 million in 2008.
“A year ago you couldn’t buy a [smart phone] for less than $600,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. “Now you can get one for $300.”
That makes basic PDAs seem like a real bargain. PalmOne Inc., the Milpitas, Calif., company whose founders created the original Palm Pilot in 1996, sells its Zire 21 hand-held for $99.
But others are pulling back. Sony Corp., which sold 3.5 million Clie PDAs to American consumers, has essentially withdrawn from the U.S. market. The Japanese consumer electronics giant said in June that it wouldn’t introduce any new Clie versions here.
