Handheld Sales Up 51% in EMEA - Windows CE Leads PalmOS

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.canalys.com/pr/r2003071.htm">http://www.canalys.com/pr/r2003071.htm</a><br /><br />Sales of data-centric handheld devices grew 51% in the Q2 2003 versus Q2 2002 largely on the back of Palm. "We expect HP will have a better Q3," said Canalys director and senior analyst Chris Jones. "It has been focused on clearing the channel to make way for a raft of new models, the effect of which will kick in over the coming months. Palm has done well though. It has a better range of products now than at any time in its history and is hitting customers on many different levels."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030722-emeamarketshare.gif" /><br /><br />Medion leaped onto the scene clinching third place with a Pocket PC that is bundled with a GPS module and Tele Atlas navigation software.<br /><br />As the comments by Canalys suggest, this was a transitional quarter on the Pocket PC side as rumors of the new OS and new devices from HP were circulating in late April and early May, which always causes a slowdown in sales. Palm and the PalmOS are relatively fresh off of their OS5 launch from last fall, had a wide range of products and did a good job executing in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market. In total it is great to see the market as a whole start to move forward. The last comment is interesting. "Despite this, the proportion of devices running Palm OS remains behind that for Symbian and Windows CE." If you add up Palm and Sony and compare it to HP and Medion, PalmOS has the lead by about 55,000 units. That must mean a significant portion of the "Other" category goes to Pocket PC and Windows CE products, like Toshiba, Acer, ViewSonic and XDA Pocket PC Phones. It may also be including the 58,000 MS based Smartphones sold by Orange. I know the Treo is sold in Europe too so some of that "Other" category belongs to Palm, though I am not sure how much. You can see a listing of some of the devices sold in the EMEA market <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/buyersguide/compare/emea/default.mspx">here</a>, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/buyersguide/compare/emea/phone.mspx">here</a> and <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/buyersguide/compare/emea/rugged.mspx">here</a>, though each list is not quite up to date with the lastest hardware.<br /><br />I am anxious to see how the Windows Mobile 2003 OS and new devices like the iPAQ 2215 and 1940 will help in the third quarter. You can read the whole press release at the Canalys site, which includes information on voice-centric devices as well.

[mbeatle]

Windows CE Still Leads PalmOS
Looks like Palm leads Windows CE

[Ed Hansberry]

Windows CE Still Leads PalmOS
Looks like Palm leads Windows CE
Really? Which part of "Despite this, the proportion of devices running Palm OS remains behind that for Symbian and Windows CE" is unclear?

[PalmInfocenter]

Huh, when did CE devices ever lead the Palm OS the EMEA?

From the press release:

In the data-centric (handheld and wireless handheld) segment, Palm retained its lead with a 34% share, similar to its position of a year ago, but with shipments up 45%. Second-placed HP, with 25% share, lost ground, having only grown its shipments by 2% year-on-year.
[/quote]

[TawnerX]

Palm inc. leads, POS does not. Obviously HP osborned itself with the 2k3 models.

[Ed Hansberry]

Huh, when did CE devices ever lead the Palm OS the EMEA?
Fair comment. I got rid of "Still" inthe title. Now that I think about it there was a quarter or two when the Compaq leaped ahead of Palm in Europe, but I beleive it was the time that the iPAQ 3600 was finally getting over 100,000 units a month produced and Palm had bungled the M50x launch. Finding press releases that old are tough to do, and that still doesn't mean CE was ahead of PalmOS at the time, just that CPQ was ahead of Palm. Handspring was still a player back then and the Jornada 54x and Casio 1x5 devices combined didn't come close to Handspring at that time, so PalmOS was probably still leading.

I think I was also influenced by the phrase "Despite this, the proportion of devices running Palm OS remains behind that for ..." but "remains" here doesn't mean "continues to" as I had originally interpreted it.

[Fzara]

I think probably the main reason the Palm OS was able to lead was because of its $99 Zire which helped ALOT of people jump on the boat to the Palm side.

[Emike]

I have a confession to make. I recently traded my Toshiba E740 for a PalmOS Sony NX70. I know, I know! How could I be so simple minded? How could I trade the tremendous power of a 400Mhz, 64mb warhorse for an anemic 200mhz, 16mb pony? Before you all stone me, allow me to give the following reasons:

1.) The screen is absolutely incredible. Why MS has chosen to stay with such a limited resolution, even with their latest update, really puzzles me. I can watch movies at a resolution of 320 x 480 at 30fps. The extra display space is also great for all the applications I use on a regular basis. You know, pim, spreadsheets, word processing, the works.

2.) Having a camera as part of the unit is surprisingly handy. Just yesterday I was able to capture pictures of an associate's birthday party that I would have completely missed otherwise. I also use it for dozens of other purposes that I would never have guessed if I didn't have it with me all the time.

3.) I hate ActiveStink. Nothing ever bothered me as much as trying to quickly sync my device only to have it reject the connection or recognize me as a quest! Simply put, hotsync works. It works every time and that really, really counts when I'm in a hurry and don't have time to play computer technician.

4.) Despite all its technical inferiority, the NX70 is every bit as responsive as the E740 ever was. Most times, applications open more predictably and reliably on the NX70.

5.) I have evaluated the reasons I carry around a PDA and have discovered that the NX70 meets each need. I really like Agendus for the Palm better than I liked Pocket Informant for the PPC. The pictures of my little boy that I keep to show to friends and family really look better on the higher resolution, better color rendition screen of the NX. I can listen to MP3's while I work on a spreadsheet just like I could with the E740.

6.) The battery life of the NX70 is significantly better than the E740 by a factor of 3 to 1. That means I can use it longer and more often without having to carry around my charger.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Please don't flame me (I may come back to the PPC someday) and I really don't want to start the age old which OS is the best argument again. But I wanted to let you know, MS shouldn't consider the handheld market a cinch. There is some real competition out there. And they are losing some of us to it.

[achille]

[Ed Hansberry]

Huh ?! What is growth refering to? why is HP 2 percent and palm ... ?!? makes no sense to me
Palm went from 145K units to 210K units - that is 45% growth. HP went from 151 to 154. That is 2% growth.

[midtoad]

The real story in these stats is not whether PalmOS or Windows whatever-the-latest-name-is has a higher market share. It's about which companies are winning and which losing. Winners: Palm, Sony, HP. Losers: everyone else!

How many PPC makers are there out there right now? Ten? more? If ten, then ten of them have to share 186 000 (IIRC) in sales. That's an average of less than 20 000 per manufacturer. Not much to compensate for the investment in tooling up, manufacturing, marketing, distributing, selling and supporting. No wonder Toshiba won't upgrade its older units; they can't afford to.

Basically, if you bought a unit from other than Palm, Sony, HP, you can forget about support in the future. And right now HP must have its hands full, since basic PDA functions like alarms don't work on its brand new 2215. The oldest Palm 1000 was more reliable.

cheers
Stewart in Calgary