Despite showing some signs of succumbing to the poor economic climate IDC forecasts that the global handheld devices market will continue to grow.
IDC estimates that by 2005 compound annual growth rate in the market will increase worldwide shipments to 70.9 million. The most popular device is forecast to be personal digital assistants which IDC believes will account for 83% of the market by 2005.
“Increased diversity of personal companion models across price bands and feature sets, new applications, and new uses are creating appeal for these devices in new market segments,” said Alex Slawsby, analyst for IDC’s Smart Handheld Devices research program.
“The evolution of technology in the entire smart handheld market is beginning to enable devices to bend to the usage, needs, and wishes of their users instead of the traditional paradigm of the user bending to the interface and device requirements, and this is increasing acceptance among users,” he added.
| |
2000 |
2005 |
| Worldwide shipments |
13.6 |
70.9 |
| US market share |
49% |
38% |
Source: IDC
