No big surprise here but IDC reports that the handheld market (defined as pocket-sized, either pen or keypad-centric with the ability to synchronize with PCs, potentially with wireless capabilities but lacking telephony support) continued to slide during the third quarter of 2006. Shipments fell to 1.1 million units (down by another 15.4 percent from the previous quarter and 31.3 percent from the same quarter a year ago). One of the reasons for the decline is a lack of new devices (HP has shifted much of its focus to converged devices). Another reason (not stated in the report) is that many customers are moving towards devices with telephony capabilities.
According to IDC, the top five vendors are Palm, HP, Dell and Mio tied for third and Sharp.