Worldwide shipments of PDA devices increased 25 percent in the first quarter of 2005 compared to the same period last year. This is according to a report by Gartner Dataquest, which attributes the hike in numbers to an increase in models offering wireless e-mail.

PDAs using the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system gained the top overall spot, though the total includes units from multiple hardware manufacturers including Hewlett-Packard and Dell. BlackBerry manufacturer RIM is up 75.6 percent, shipping over 711,000 units this past quarter, compared to 405,000 units at the beginning of last year. PalmOne lost the most market share, as shipments fell to 614,750 units from 834,591 shipped in the first quarter of 2004.

"The Microsoft platform is growing about as rapidly as the PalmOne platform is declining," Todd Kort, principal analyst at Gartner Dataquest told ClickZ Stats. "PalmOne has been going down about 20 percent per year, and Microsoft has been gaining about that much every year."

Worldwide: Preliminary PDA Vendor Shipment Estimates, Q105 (Units)
Company	Q105 Shipments	Q105 Market Share (%)	Q104 Shipments	Q104 Market Share (%)	Q105 - 1Q04 Growth (%)
RIM	711,000	20.8	405,000	14.8	75.6
palmOne	614,750	18.0	834,591	30.5	-26.3
HP	601,352	17.6	575,853	21.0	4.4
Nokia	340,000	9.9	-	0.0	N/A
Dell	217,000	6.3	163,250	6.0	32.9
Others	935,010	27.3	757,378	27.7	23.5
Total	3,419,112	100.0	2,736,072	100.0	25.0
Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300. Columns may not add to totals shown because of rounding. N/A = Not applicable
Source: Gartner Dataquest, April 2005

Worldwide, shipments are increasing as manufacturers expand their market reach. RIM BlackBerry had been an American phenomenon, though it's starting to pick up in Europe.

"The European market has been going very strongly for over a year now, and we are constantly upgrading our forecasts," comments Kort.

Kort notes RIM doesn't have a lot of competition in the wireless space. He also attributes their continued growth to the number of new carriers picking up BlackBerry models, extending their global footprint.

Worldwide: Preliminary PDA Vendor Shipment Estimates by Operating System, Q105
Company	Q105 Shipments	Q105 Market Share (%)	Q104 Shipments	Q104 Market Share (%)	Q105 - 1Q04 Growth (%)
Windows CE	1,573,062	46.0	1,100,008	40.2	43.0
RIM	711,000	20.8	405,000	14.8	75.6
Palm OS	684,750	20.0	1,119,714	40.9	-38.8
Symbian	340,000	9.9	-	0.0	N/A
Linux	27,300	0.8	34,800	1.3	-21.6
Others	83,000	2.4	76,550	2.8	8.4
Total	3,419,112	100.0	2,736,072	100.0	25.0
Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300. Columns may not add to totals shown because of rounding.
Source: Gartner Dataquest, April 2005

The average selling price of handheld units is up 15 percent over last year, due to an increase in shipments of high-end models with wireless features. The non-wireless market, meanwhile, is seeing a rapid decline in sales.

Stronger competition may soon be expected from Pocket PC edition phones. Kort points to improvement in the category, and says handsets are starting to get better and sport more interesting designs.