Smartphones to outsell PDAs next year

A REPORT FROM TAIWANESE quango the Institute for Information Industry claimed that next year sales of smartphones will exceed sales of PDAs (personal digital assistants).

We wonder.

According to the III, quoted in the Economic News, over 10 million smartphones will be sold this year, and 24 million next year. Sales of PDAs next year, it estimates, will only be 19 million or so.

Local Taiwanese phone firms making authorised Microsoft Smartphones include Via's sister company High Tech Computer, Compal and Mitac, said the paper, with HTC the biggest producer of sets with the Orange SPV, which appears to have some uncanny resemblances to Sendo Z100 prototypes.

Currently, Sendo and Microsoft are conducting a very public spat over in a Texarkana district court.

Just how well is the Smartphone doing? Over at Microsoft's Smartphone page, we see that a cloth keyboard for the Orange SPV is now shipping, while new powered Sprint PCS phones include digital cameras.

There's also a rather essential software update for the Orange SPV, which some foolish hacks have alleged takes an age to boot and is a tad buggy.

The screen on the Orange SPV is so bright that if you had two to replace your headlights, this would probably do the trick.

Tomorrow Microsoft will kick off its first Mobility Developer conference in New Orleans, followed by Paris, Japan, and Seoul Korea. µ