Sales Of Handheld Devices in Asia Dip
The handheld market in Asia has contracted along with the rest of the world as the gloomy economy continues to prevail.
The handheld market in Asia has contracted along with the rest of the world as the gloomy economy continues to prevail.
Sales of handheld devices in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) have dipped for the first time, said IDC.
Market analyst at IDC Asia-Pacific’s Personal Systems Research Group, Manny Lopez, explained: “In the midst of a gloomy economy and lack of consumer confidence, the handheld device market in Asia has contracted along with the rest of the world.”
The research company’s preliminary results showed that 1.06 million units of handheld devices were shipped to the Asia-Pacific region in the first half of 2002, down 19 percent from the first half of 2001 (these figures exclude the emerging category of ‘converged devices’ which combines telephony and traditional PDA features).
But despite the dip, many parts of Asia still hold potential for handheld devices, especially in the emerging countries that continue to post positive growth despite the slowdown in the rest of the region, said Lopez.
Although commercial market activity was still small in comparison to the consumer market, many of the multinational vendors were still able to ship units into industries such as insurance, finance, telecommunications, and logistics. New products, such as the Toshiba e310, were introduced to the region during the first half of the year, thus providing a wide range of product choices for buyers despite the consolidation of the HP Jornada into the iPAQ line.
Commented Lopez: “We expect seasonal improvement in the second half of year, particularly with the line-up of new devices slated for release.”
Country Highlights:
Vendor Highlights:
Asia-Pacific (ex. Japan) Handheld Device Shipments (‘000) by Vendor, H1 2002 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Vendor | H1 2002 | Market Share | H2 2001 | Market Share | Growth H1 02/H2 02 |
1 | Hi-Tech Wealth | 244.1 | 23% | 330 | 25% | -26% |
2 | Palm | 130.3 | 12% | 151.2 | 12% | -14% |
3 | Minren | 125 | 12% | 123.1 | 9% | 27% |
4 | HP | 111.2 | 10% | 104.8 | 8% | 6% |
5 | Legend | 92.6 | 9% | 142 | 11% | -35% |
Others | 360.7 | 34% | 459.4 | 35% | -21% | |
APEJ Total | 1,063.90 | 100% | 1,310.50 | 100% | -19% | |
Note: HP includes Compaq shipments | ||||||
Source: IDC, July 2002 (preliminary) |
Reprinted from asia.internet.com, an internet.com site