The comeback kid: PDAs?

Aha! I knew it. You guys still like and find value in . In fact, worldwide handheld shipments are on pace to surpass the 13.2 million sales record set in 2001. As reported by CNET News.com, a Gartner study found that worldwide shipments of PDAs totaled 3.6 million in the last three months, and if these trends continue, unit sales will hit the 15 million mark by the end of 2005. Here in the States, we saw a 1.3 percent increase in sales, equaling 1.4 million units, but Western Europe led the charge with a 94 percent growth in the second quarter. Gartner attributes this surge to falling prices and wireless connectivity, and it does not include smart phones, such as the Palm Treo 650 and BlackBerrys. However, this news comes on the heels of a contradictory report by research firm IDC that said global handheld shipments fell by 24.9 percent to 1.7 million units in the second quarter. Obviously, this is very confusing--are PDAs making a comeback or not? No matter what the numbers say, I believe there's still a viable market for handhelds. I see people using them every day--on the bus, at work, and at the gym. Yes, smart phones may be the future, but I think we still have a little while to go in terms of finding a good compromise between form factor and features. Plus, not everybody needs all that functionality. What do you think? What is the future of PDAs? TalkBack to me by posting a comment below.