European Handheld Market
In its study, research firm IDC shows Microsoft PocketPC-enabled products making inroads into Palm’s share of the market. Despite an apparent softening of Palm’s grip as market leader, Palm OS-based mobile devices still dominated the market at 40 percent, down from 47 percent in 2000.

Plagued by high inventory levels, vendors employed aggressive price cutting campaigns to make space for new models.

"Personal companions dominated the market during the final quarter of the year, with aggressive pricing continuing to be evident in the retail channel," said Andy Brown, research manager for European Mobile Computing at IDC.

• Sales of Palm handhelds fell by 28 percent, leaving the company with 34 percent of the market.
• Compaq saw sales escalate to 179 percent, giving it a market share of 17 percent.
• With the release of the first PocketPC 2002, HP saw sales increase by 67 percent.
• Nokia recorded strong growth at 82 percent, reflecting solid acceptance of its new 9210 Communicator.
• Casio sales increased by 107 percent, as it continued to ship high volumes of low-end PocketPC devices.

The study by market research firm NPD Techworld shows revenue from U.S. sales of handheld computers rose to $1.29-million in 2001 from $1.03-million in 2000. In terms of unit growth, manufacturers sold 4.9 million handhelds in 2001, up from 3.5 million a year earlier.

"Sales were slow in the middle of the year, but as handheld computing grows into a more mainstream consumer category, it needs a range of products, including lower-priced products, said Steve Baker, director of research for NPD, told The Wall Street Journal.

According to NPD’s figures, market-share shifts were pronounced in 2001.

• Palm’s market share fell to 58.2 percent, down from 72.1 percent.
• Handspring increased its unit market share to 15.1 percent from 13.9 percent.
• Compaq’s unit market share rose to 7.4 percent from 2 percent.
• Sony recorded a jump to 7.4 percent from a negligible amount in 2000.