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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Pocket PC pulls even with Palm OS - But RIM comes on strong

TechWeb: " According to Gartner, worldwide shipments of PDAs dropped nearly 5% in the first three months of 2004 over the same quarter last year. But the fall in sales was overshadowed by Microsoft dramatically closing the gap between it and PalmSource for the lead in PDA operating system share ... Palm OS shipments plummeted nearly 21% year-over-year in the first quarter ... Microsoft made up a bit of ground by increasing its market share 4.6%. That puts PalmSource with 40.7% of the market, and Microsoft, with 40.2%, in a dead heat ... In 2000, for instance, Microsoft had just 11% of the market."

ZDNet: "The decline in Palm OS market share in the first quarter of 2004 is not unexpected, because many Palm OS users have delayed PDA purchases until they can evaluate PalmSource's upcoming operating system, Cobalt ... Microsoft's bundling of Outlook with Pocket PCs and its acceptance among enterprise application developers have also worked against Palm ... Another highlight of the quarter was the spectacular 352.5 percent growth achieved by Research In Motion, which saw its market share jump from 3.1 percent in the first quarter of last year to 14.8 percent this quarter. RIM's BlackBerry initially launched mainly as an e-mail device, but it now offers cellular service as well."

I've always liked the elegance and simplicity of the Palm OS, and PalmSource's new PIM applications are fantastic. But I always end up returning to the Pocket PC, and my current PPC device--an HP iPAQ 4155--is simply fantastic. RIM Blackberries, however, make me wonder if I'm not a candidate for a capable all-in-one device. I'll keep watching this market evolve.

[ Posted at 12:53 PM | Permalink ]