• Japan now accounts for 33% of the worldwide smartphone market
• North America has only 6.3% of the global smartphone market 
• North America  accounted for 45% of worldwide PDA shipments
• Nokia  commanded 50% of the global smartphone market
• 53% of all PDAs shipped in the first half of 2006 featured integrated cellular capability
• Enterprise market will account for 52% of all PDA shipments in 2006

Market By Region:

Japan smartphone shipments tripled in the first half of 2006 as  Japan overtook Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to become the largest market for smartphones in the first half of 2006. Japan now accounts for 33% of the worldwide smartphone market. North America was the only region where sales of PDAs continued to outsell smartphones. Consumer taste and fashion, advances in personal information manager (PIM) software and messaging, and rapidly declining prices all combined to drive the strong growth in smartphone sales. On the other hand, consumer demand for PDAs is dwindling.

In Japan, smartphone shipments grew 153% in the first half of the year, despite a decline of 22% in the second quarter of 2006. Japanese smartphone shipments totaled 11.6 million units in the first half of 2006. This allowed Japan to capture the global lead from EMEA, which grew 26.3%. EMEA accounted for 30% of the worldwide smartphone market, down from 42% in the first half of 2005.

The Asia Pacific region overall remained very strong during the first half of 2006, accounting for 29% of the worldwide market. Shipments in North America grew 104% in the first half of 2006, however, its share of the global smartphone market remained fairly stable at 6.3%.

North America remained the only region where PDAs continue to outsell smartphones. In the first half of 2006, the region accounted for 45% of worldwide PDA shipments, slightly up from the same period in 2005. In the first half of 2006, the EMEA and the North America regions accounted for 85% of the PDA market.

Vendor Share:

Nokia accounted for 42% of the combined PDA and smartphone market in the first half of 2006 and commanded 50% of the global smartphone market. Motorola accounted for 5.3% in the combined PDA and smartphone market. Motorola’ smartphone shipments grew 103.5% in the first half of 2006, which represented the highest year on year growth among the top 5 vendors. This performance was driven by the success of Motorola’s Linux-based devices in China. Shipments of the Motorola Q have been hampered by the minimum $80 monthly service plan offered by Verizon.

In the first half of 2006, RIM accounted for 6.5% of the combined PDA and smartphone market, with shipments up 60% year on year. RIM smartphone shipments represent 36% of all BlackBerry mobile devices, up from 9% in the same period last year. In the first half of 2006, Palm accounted for 5% of the combined PDA and smartphone market, down from 8% in the first half of 2005. Palm saw a decrease of 26% in the first half of 2006. Treo smartphones accounted for 57% of Palm’s mobile device shipments in the first half of 2006.

2006 Forecast:

According to Gartner’s latest forecast, smartphone shipments will increase by 66% to reach 81 million units in 2006.  In 2006, Gartner expects the PDA market to increase by 6.3% to 16 million units.  Gartner estimates that 53% of all PDAs shipped in the first half of 2006 featured integrated cellular capability, up from 46% during the same period in 2005. The share of PDAs purchased by enterprises will continue to increase; it accounted for 49% of all PDA shipments in the second quarter of 2006 and Gartner expects that the enterprise market will account for 52% of all PDA shipments in 2006.