Abstract
This IDC study presents the five-year forecast for worldwide handheld device
shipments. The handheld device market, as currently constituted, will continue
to decline as users transition to other devices that meet their needs. Handheld
device vendors, hard-pressed to remain within this market, will either decrease
shipment volumes or withdraw from the market altogether. Despite this dour
outlook, there will remain a group of loyal users and vendors that will keep
the market alive, but at a steadily decreasing rate over time. One major
consideration for the handheld device market is convergence and how other
devices using the architecture of handheld devices, namely portable media
devices and mobile Internet devices, have begun to gain salience in the
marketplace. IDC is paying close attention to how these factors are playing out
and what they mean for the handheld device market.
"In 2007, the market lost a key player - Dell - and other vendors also decided
to leave," points out Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst with IDC' s Mobile
Device Technology and Trends team. "This has left a smaller list of players and
shipment volumes than in years past. But our conversations with the remaining
vendors reveal that they have not given up, and they cite continued demand from
their most devoted clients. As such, IDC believes that the market will continue
in the years to come."
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