Handango and PalmGear, two of the most successful sources for mobile downloads on the Internet, have released their latest sales figures. Handango offers software for all of the most common mobile platforms, including the Palm OS, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC and Smartphone, and Java, among others, while PalmGear is a marketplace for Palm OS applications and content.

What the figures indicate is that even though the PDA market has leveled off somewhat over the last couple of years and is expected to grow only slightly over the next few years, users are downloading more applications and getting more out of their devices than ever before.

In addition, with the increasing prevalence of smartphones and the fact that mobile phones in general are becoming more powerful, mobile users are increasingly buying and downloading software for use on these types of devices. Smartphones, devices that offer the power of a PDA but with a cellular component that allows for voice and data communications, are expected to take off over the next few years and could eventually become the handheld of choice for most consumers. This offers application vendors the chance to tap into a market that will dwarf the PDA market in terms of sales, as mobile phone's currently do.

According to Handango, demand for mobile software picked up in the fourth quarter because of the holiday season. The number of applications purchased per person was 2.13, up from 2.06 in the third quarter. The average price per application dropped slightly in the fourth quarter to $16.77, down from $16.91 in the third quarter. This drop was due in part to a large volume of holiday discounting. The number of new applications introduced during the quarter totaled 4,961, up only slightly from the 4,835 applications introduced during same quarter a year earlier.

In terms of content and not applications, ringtones rang up 81% of digital content sales with graphics a distant second at 11%. Themes and screen savers rounded out the sales with 5% and 3%, respectively. The top five phones and smartphones Handango customers added software to were the Sony Ericsson P800/P900, Motorola T720 Series, PalmOne/Handspring Treo Series, T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Nokia 3650/7650.

As for the most popular type of applications being downloaded, Games lead with 24% followed by Personal Productivity (18%), Utilities (14%), Business & Professional (10%), Medical (9%), Entertainment (9%), Travel (7%), and Education & Reference (6%).

Interestingly, PalmOne'S Tungsten T series owners added the most software to their PDA via Handango, the rest of the top 5 were all Pocket PCs, including the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 3000 series, Dell Axim series, HP iPAQ h5000 series and the HP iPAQ h2200 Series, in that order. HP's presence reflects the success the company had this year with the unveiling of several new models, solidifying its place as the number one Pocket PC vendor and number two PDA vendor overall, while Dell's number two position demonstrates the success that company has experienced since first releasing the Axim Pocket PC series late in 2002, which quickly made it a top-tier handheld company.