• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 19, 2005

According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld Qview, the worldwide market for handheld devices experienced its sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline in the second quarter of 2005. Device shipments decreased 20.8% compared to the same quarter one year ago and fell 8.5% sequentially in 2Q05 to 1.7 million units.

Despite the continued decline, manufacturers remain committed to driving innovation throughout their product portfolios. Notable are GPS solutions and mobile manager. And manufacturers are moving to balance these advancements with converged mobile devices to provide a full range of options to modern mobile consumers and enterprises.

Kevin Burden, research manager of IDC's Mobile Devices program, says "... handheld device manufacturers are striving to create new solutions that leverage the unique hardware and software capabilities of the handheld device to provide users with an experience beyond that of a dedicated device."

Vendor Highlights

• Palm -shipments declined 30.9% year over year. LifeDrive mobile helped to bring shipments up 3.1%.
• HP -shift of mobile users from handhelds to converged devices brought HP's quarterly shipments down 39.3% year over year and 35.2% sequentially.
• Acer -shipments grew 608.2% year over year and 61.1% sequentially. Growth is driven by demand for the n35 handheld device integrated GPS receiver.
• Dell - Despite a 17.1% sequential decline, Dell posted a 17.1% year-over-year rise in shipments in the second quarter.
• Yakumo -rose into the number 5 spot on year-over-year shipments of 346.2% and sequential shipments of 52.6%. Yakumo's strength derives from demand for its low cost handheld devices with integrated GPS receivers.

Handheld devices are pocket-sized, either pen or keypad-centric, and are capable of synchronizing with desktop or laptop computers.

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