Disconnected Handheld Sales Continue to Disappoint

According to market research firm IDC, sales of so-called disconnected handhelds (PDAs) dropped 8.8 percent in the third quarter of 2005 compared to Q2, and 16.9 percent year over year.

More and more, converged devices are the way to go. The traditional handheld, with perhaps Bluetooth and 802.11b connectivity, is losing attractiveness to converged devices with cellphone access. Adding things like GPS to PDAs simply hasn't been enough.

Personally, my last PDA was a Pocket PC phone ... I wanted to get rid of the extra device. And though I have found there are some negatives to the style of phone ... like size ... newer devices such as the Nokia 9300 Communicator are appearing that make the size difference less and less. I need a PDA to handle contacts, data, appointments, but I simply won't go back to a standalone device.

Here's the IDC Data from this year and last: