Smartphones left PDAs in the dust

We’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now, but here’s yet more evidence that smartphones with a little ‘s’ are leaving PDAs (remember those?) in the dust. Key stats:

• During the first six months of 2006, PDA+smartphone shipments grew 57% versus first half of 2005
• Shipments totaled 42.1 million units
• 34.7 million of those units were smartphones, versus approximately 7.4 million PDAs

That’s right, 82.4% of all “mobile computer” devices sold from January through June of this year where phones, not PDAs. Not surprisingly, the article goes on to note:

The last stronghold for PDAs is North America, which is the only region where they outsold smartphones. In fact, North America accounted for 45 percent of worldwide PDA shipments during the first half of 2006. On the flip side, Japan prefers smartphones more than any other region, accounting for 33 percent of shipments for the first half of the year.

And my favorite bit as a former employee and current NOK shareholder:

Nokia owns half of the smartphone market and was responsible for 42 percent of PDA and smartphone shipments during the first part of 2006.

If I worked for Palm I’d really be praying that the Treo 680 gains some mass market traction RSN.