PC World’s article
PDA Sales Increase Sharply
summarizes a Gartner Group report on worldwide PDA sales for Q1 2005.
The article comments on Gartner’s conclusion that RIM Blackberry line is the #1 selling PDA worldwide with 21% of the market compared to PalmOne’s 18% share.
The article also mentions that
it did not count sales of smart phones, such as PalmOne’s Treo 650.
My question is why is a Blackberry considered a PDA but not a Treo 650?
Is, for example, the PalmOne Tungsten C’s PDA capabilities different from the Treo 650’s?
I can understand why smartphones like the Nokia Series 60 models or the Motorola MPx220 I reviewed recently in…
On the Go with the Motorola MPx220 Camera Phone
…are not considered PDAs.
But, I don’t understand why the Blackberry is a PDA if the Treo 650 is not.
I see an awful lot of Treo 650 devices used by lots of people around me (I use a Windows Mobile based MPx220 myself, btw).
So, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the Treo 650 accounted for a couple of percentage points of total PDA sales if it were included in this report’s statistics.
What do you think? Is the RIM Blackberry really a PDA like a PalmOne Tungsten C or Dell Axim X50v?
Isn’t a Treo 650 a PDA too?
Treo
Excellent question. I own a Treo600 and that article got on my nerves for exactly the same reason.
What is a PDA?
Leave it to Gartner to try to be the leader and makes changes. What Gartner is trying to do is to exclude "smartphones", such as Palm's Treo 650 and RIM's BlackBerry 7100 from being considered a PDA. According to Gartner, a PDA is "a data-centric handheld computer." I feel this stance by Gartner is very confusing, since a PDA is basically a handheld device with organizer and basic computing functions. A typical PDA is supposed to have a faster processor and more memory than a typical phone, and can run more complex software. Want to get more confused. IDC still defines PDAs as non-voice-centric devices capable of syncing with a computer. To Gartner and IDC - get with the times. If the device maintains my calendar, contacts and email, then it's a PDA regardless if it has voice or data, has a number pad or alpha pad, is smart or not!