Handhelds march backwards

WORLDWIDE SALES OF HANDHELD computers are slowing right up as, we reckon, people discover they're not up to much.

Gartner Dataquest estimates worldwide sales of handhelds were down by 3.5 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Shipments fell to 2.71 million from 2.80 million a year ago, the researcher said, although the price of individual units was up pushing the total sales value up from $888.5 million to $901.6 million.

And HP took the most money, while Palm sold the most units, Gartner says.

Meanwhile, separate figures from IDC show that shipments of handhelds in the Asia-Pacific region, though not including Japan, were going backwards for the first time during the first half of 2002. Sales were down by 19 per cent in the period from January to June compared with the second half of 2001.

Both researchers blame the manufacturers themselves for not bringing out new units that people might like to buy.

Earlier we reported that a third research organisation, Canalys, said that sales in the second quarter had also dipped in Europe. Gartner says that the US market accounts for 48 per cent of global shipments, and with sales falling off significantly in other regions -- according to rival researchers -- the US must be the only area to have seen positive growth this year.

Canalys too, pointed at the lack of new models as a reason for the sales slowdown. Yet these researchers all exclude handhelds from the likes of Kyocera, Handspring and Samsung that seek to combine the functionality of a handheld with the usefulness of a mobile phone.

Complexities with wifi and the paucity of Bluetooth undoubtedly cause users to question the usefulness of a handheld. Corporations like to equip their staff with handhelds for specific tasks, but the consumer will continue to ask, "What's the point, when I have a phone?" µ

See also

Users sniff at mobile devices unless they're phones