The second quarter of 2005 saw the Australia smart handheld device market post record growth yet again but the future of PDAs remains in doubt as converged devices increase in popularity.

According to the latest figures from research group IDC, the converged market continued to exhibit strong growth and the pen-based market made a recovery from the previous quarter,

Converged shipments accounted for 89% share of the total market, while pen-based devices, grew 14% sequentially from Q1 2005.

"The growth in pen-based shipments in Q1 2005 was largely driven by the launch of new models as well as various promotional and bundling activity by vendors. However, the future of PDAs continues to be questionable as converged devices continue to gain popularity among users opting for a two-solution data and telephony device both for personal as well as business use. It is anticipated that adoption levels of mobile devices by businesses in Australia will increase, but hardware vendors and wireless carriers should focus more on critical issues such as security, flexibility and scalability," said IDC analyst, Mercie Clement

"IDC expects converged devices to be the sole growth driver in the foreseeable future, due to developments in the wireless landscape. The continued uptake of broadband, enabling home and business users new services and tools for communications and commerce will enable greater adoption of wireless technologies. As home networking gains momentum, mobile devices with integrated WLAN and/or Bluetooth are becoming more popular."

From an overall operating system (OS) perspective, Symbian maintained its lead with 68% share of the total market. Microsoft maintained its second place with 20% share. The proprietary and Palm operating systems finished with 7% and 5% share respectively.

In terms of vendor rankings for the combined PDA and data-centric device market, Research in Motion (RIM) climbed to the number one position, with 17.9% share. 02 finished the quarter with 16.1% share while HP gained the number three spot, with 14.9% share. Rounding out the top 5 were Palm and Carrier Devices with 14.5% and 9.2% share respectively.

IDC Q1 2005 Top five vendors (combined PDA and data-centric devices):

• Research in Motion (RIM) 17.9%
• O2 16.1%
• HP 14.9%
• Palm 14.5%
• Carrier Devices 9.2%
• Others 27.4%