21st November 2006

Lack of New Devices Contribute to Continued Decline of Handheld Market, Says IDC

The worldwide market for handheld devices continued along its downward path during the third quarter of 2006. "Contributing significantly to the decrease in shipments this quarter was a lack of new devices being announced or shipped to the market," said Ramon Llamas, research analyst for IDC's Mobile Markets team.

According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, total worldwide shipments of handheld devices fell to 1.1 million units, down 15.4% from the previous quarter and down 31.3% from the same quarter one year ago. This quarter constitutes the eleventh consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline for the worldwide handheld market.

"Vendors continue to rely on models that have been on the market anywhere between two and four quarters. Without many new devices on the market in the third quarter, it brings into question how shipments will total during the fourth quarter when vendors typically expect a boost in shipments as a result of new devices coming to market," said Llamas.
The absence of new models does not necessarily mean the end of the handheld market, however. "There are users who remain fiercely loyal to their handheld devices, and smaller niche users have emerged," Llamas added. "For example, in some developing markets, the handheld device has been tremendously important in self-education, enabling users to continue learning outside the classroom once they have downloaded content through the PC. If usage for specific non-network tasks like self-education increase, we could expect an increase in shipments and possibly new devices that are optimized for particular tasks."

Web: www.idc.com/