We all know that the popularity and availability of smartphones is growing everyday. But their growth means, at the same time, the end of PDAs.
According to In-Stat, a research company focused on mobile ommunications, 2009 will be the year when the PDAs will be put to rest.
In-Stat says that the shipments of PDAs reached only 8.7 million units in 2004, down from 10 million in 2003. The
outlook for upcoming years is not good, as the PDA market will have a negative Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of -21.5% during the 2004-2009 period.
By the end of 2005 there will be significant price reductions and more stylishly designed smartphones, thus attracting more users from PDAs to this category.
At the same time, the research company belives that Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular wireless devices will be offered by more traditional PDA vendors as they look to compete in the smartphone market.
This study was released after Sony announces they will be withdrawing the Clie line from the US at least throughout the end of the year. At the same time, Sony said that it will fully withdraw from the personal digital assistant business by ending production for the Japanese market as early as July.
The official explanation was that Sony intends to focus on devices with multimedia and gaming capabilities, such as PSP, but the decline of PDA market may be the real reason.
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