Handhelds are getting quite a bit of attention these days. Whether it's a cell phone or a pocket PC, everyone would like to own one. U.S. is one of the key leaders for the mobile/handheld market.

Sales for handheld devices in Europe, Middle East, and Asis went up 62% in Q1 of 2004 compared to Q1 of 2003 according to Canalys.com Ltd., a research firm.

Another research firm confirmed that 2.5 million handheld units were shipped in the Q1 of 2004 compared to 1.5 million units in Q1 of 2003. These handhelds statistics by research firms do not include cell phones.

Top three suppliers of these mobile units were Nokia, HP, and PalmOne. Nokia shipped 1.2 million units, coming in at first position and holdling 48.4% market shares, HP shipped 251,530 units while holding a second place crown and 10.2% market share, and the third place winner, PalmOne sold 250,310 units with 10.1% market shares. There was a tough battle between HP and PalmOne. The fourth place prize was taken by Sony Ericsson with 175,450 units and 7.1% market shares. Siemens AG was proud to hold 3.4% market shares with 82,970 product shipments.

Even though the sales increased, all five companies faced lost quite a bit of market shares in Q1 of this year.

Microsoft was the leading operating system leader for data-centric handhelds with 487,030 units and 57% market shares. PlamSource came in second with 275,760 software units and 32.3% market shares.
This is a good news for the industry as well as consumers. Many consumers will see new developements and technologies being introduced into the market very soon.

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