Entelligence: The future of PDAs

Every Thursday Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research contributes an interesting item of gadget-related research data:

With Sony pulling out of the PDA market and others slimming down their offerings, there seems to be some question about the future of the these devices relative to a single converged device such as a smartphone. We think that's incorrect; the PDA will be around for quite some time, but the market will segment accordingly in response to smartphones. The personal digital assistant (PDA) marketplace has increasingly trifurcated in terms of functionality and that's likely to continue. We see the three functionality forks as follows: basic PDA functionality; basic PDA
functionality with media centricity; and basic PDA functionality together with media centricity and wireless features.
JupiterResearch believes that trifurcation in the market, combined with very different price points, precludes convergence on a single device or form factor. Business users will lean toward wireless-enabled devices, high-end consumers will focus on color and media-centric devices, while price-sensitive consumers will be well served by basic PDA functionality.

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