Handhelds just won't sell

[Julio Franco]

CNet is reporting that numbers for PDA sales are not looking good despite of the added processing power, eyecandy and overall fancy features, they just won't sell.

The situation must be looking even worse for manufacturers after some of the big boys joined the club last year, Dell and Viewsonic, for example.

Market leader Palm saw shipments decline 12.2 percent in 2002, to about 4.4 million units from about 5.1 million units in 2001, according to Dataquest. Hewlett-Packard, which holds the No. 2 spot in the market and is the market share leader for devices using Microsoft's operating system, saw worldwide shipments drop by 27.2 percent, to 1.6 million units from 2.2 million units.

 

[agissi]

I sure as heck wouldnt want one...what good are they for? You can keep phone numbers and a diary on it, maybe some other crap you'll never use too! Wohoo As for the phone numbers, most phones have that stuff built in. Though I must say, I have seen some cool looking ones :grinthumb:

 

[conradguerrero]

It's the applications that make a pda worthwhile. Data Tables, Graphical Calculators, Dictionaries, Databases, Text Editors, Spreadsheet Editors, Games, ETC...

I use mine daily at college.

 

[warr]

a business man may take full use it. if he needs it.

if not for business, you can certainly do those things that PDA can , without a PDA.
well, got money. then buy one to play lol. :haha: :haha:

 

[Guest]

I have thought of getting one to read ebooks on, but other than that I've always considered them worthless. Toys for yuppies. If I need to keep important info there is an invention called paper that I would prefer to use.

 

[Phantasm66]

I think they look cool but that's where it ends, unless you are the kind of person who is going to meetings constantly and NEEDS to know that you have to be some crazy place in 15 mins, etc....

As the technology matures, it might be possible for something better to be invented. Like a wireless terminal for your home media server. You could have a broadband wireless connection stream a movie to it, so on the bus you could watch a movie you recorded onto your multimedia server (tivo 3 or something!) last night. That's where I see these kinds of things selling.

But if I want to recall names and addresses I can buy a little gadget that does that for about £5.