Palm grasps Q4 top spot

In the smart handheld device (SHD) sector for fourth quarter 2003, Palm, has shown the strongest growth with 29.9 percent market share.

Figures released by industry analyst IDC yesterday showed 'massive' year-on-year growth of 93.4 percent in shipment of SHDs.

According to IDC, the top five vendors for total market were: Palm -- 29.9 percent, HP -- 26.3 percent, Nokia -- 13.1 percent RIM --  7.3 percent and Sony Ericsson -- 4.0 percent with 'others' making up 19.4 percent.

'The strongest growth from an OS perspective was for Palm, which grew by 11.3 percent from 3Q 2003,' said Michael Sager, IDC associate analyst, in a statement.

'Despite leading the market in 4Q 2003, Microsoft's Pocket PC OS declined by 11.9 percent quarter on quarter, on its way to accounting for 40.3 percent of all SHD shipments. In third position was Symbian, which was again strong to garner 18.2 percent share in the last quarter of 2003' Sager said.

According to the statement, Palm, maker of palmOne, has been helped by its acquisition of Handspring.