Handheld devices continue to slump

IDC RELEASED data which it said showed the 10th consecutive quarter of decline in sales of handheld devices.

The market research firm said that the second quarter of this year saw a 26.3 per cent decrease from the same quarter last year - totalling 1.4 million devices.

For the first half of 2006, vendors shipped 2.9 million devices, a drop of 21.4 per cent from the 3.7 million units in the same period last year.

Nevertheless, amongst the vendors, Palm continued to hold the number one spot and is "far and away" the worldwide market leader, said IDC. HP is number two, while Dell is number three.

IDC's figures are for branded shipments and exclude OEM sales. It defines handhelds as not including telephony but may include wireless capabilities.

Vendor	2006 shipments	2006 share	2005 shipments	2005 share	Growth
Palm	475,000	34.9%	638,376	34.6%	-25.6%
HP	260,000	19.1%	380,000	20.6%	-31.6%
Dell	132,050	9.7%	179,200	9.7%	-26.3%
Mio	91,700	6.7%	110,660	6%	-17.1%
Acer	60,000	4.4%	199,351	10.8%	-69.9%
Others	401,250	29.5%	538,225	29.1%	-25.4%
Total	1,360,000	100%	1,846,461	100%	-26.3%

Acer took a big hit, and IDC said its position in number five is threatened by the "others". µ