PDA sales surge in Q1 (up 39,7%)

According to a new  GARTNER survey and even though major vendors (like Reasearch In Motion "RIM" and Palm) have shifted to expensive and profitable smartphones, shipments of PDAs jumped nearly 40 percent in the first quarter of 2007. 

Global PDA shipments exceeded 5.1 million, up 39.7% compared with 1Q06. Shipments of Windows Mobile PDAs grew 64% in 1Q07, approaching 3.2 million units. Seventy-one percent of all units shipped had integrated cellular capabilities.

The higher than expected result came from demands for GPS navigation and e-mail functions on those devices, according to a Gartner study released Tuesday.

Consequences of this strategy for the main vendors:
RIM device shipment is 0.2% fewer than last year.
Palm has been drop out of top 5 in market share.
Mio has a 162 percent rise in PDA device shipments in Q1.
Samsung, essentially thanks to BlackJack raised from 2K units shipment in 2006 to 451K units for Q1 2007.
Motorola is following same path as Samsung device with the different versions of Motorola Q devices.

Market share:
RIM - 18.1%
Mio  - 11.1%
Samsung - 8.8%
Sharp - 8.5%
Nokia - 6.2%

Even with this good score for Q1 2007 other industry Analysts said that devices without any phone capabilities at all are losing the interest of users.