By Tony Hallett, 10 December 2002 10:00
NEWS Unit sales of handheld computers in France, Germany and the UK were strong in October and are likely to stay solid until the end of the year. The growth has been keenly felt at Palm and Sony. Palm has solidified its market leader position, increasing its share in these markets to 46 per cent from 39 per cent in September, buoyed by strong sales of its sub-£100 Zire model. Sony also rode the budget wave with its Clie SL-10 helping the company account overall for 13 per cent of unit sales. HP, now the owner of the iPaq brand, remained in second place, though its share fell from 29 to 26 per cent. Its main strength is the business market, with its high-end, often networked devices. The latest figures are from Context's SalesOut report, which measures sales to end users via resellers, dealers and retailers, as opposed to shipments to channels by vendors. The cloud on the horizon is for providers of phone-enabled devices. Since July, Context reckons sales of O2's xda all-in-one handheld have fallen from 5 to 1 per cent of shipments. Others in the market have also been hit as demand for such hybrid handhelds hasn't materialised. Preliminary results for November and December lead Context to predict a strong quarter across Western Europe.
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