The figure below given by eTForecasts in 2003 shows the Worldwide PDA product mix.
Unit sales are in millions.
Pen PDAs are the market leader with worldwide unit sales of 12.1M in 2001 with growth projected to 17.6M devices in 2008.
Pen PDA sales declined slightly in 2002 due to poor economic conditions and the strong growth of PDA-Phones in Europe.
There are two notable trends in mobile computing that can be readily quantified.
One is the meteoric rise in sales of smartphones.
The other is the declining PDA market.
According to Ovum, the smartphone market has grown from just two million units sold in 2002 to some 10 million sold in 2003, with 25 million expected to be sold in 2004 and 130 million in 2007.
Projections from other market research firms are consistent, with IDC forecasting 30 million devices in 2004 and 86% compound annual growth through 2007.
ABI predicts similar growth, expecting 150 million units by 2008.
These global sales figures include both consumer and enterprise markets.
Based on various market reports, Symbian projects the relative growth of smartphones with respect to other mobile computing segments as above.
