HP Overtakes Palm Outside U.S.

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October 21, 2003 (3:35 PM EDT)

Hewlett-Packard Co. toppled Palm Inc. in the third quarter from the top spot in the handheld market in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, a market research firm said Tuesday.

Driving HP past Palm was an 87 percent increase in shipments, giving the Palo Alto, Calif., company 31.1 percent of the market, Canalys said. Palm, on the other hand, increased shipments by 8 percent, falling back to 28.8 percent of the market. Medion AG and Dell Inc. were third and fourth, with 8.1 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

A total of 646,430 handhelds were shipped in the period ended Sept. 30. The United Kingdom research firm defines handhelds as pocket-sized wireless devices used primarily for data.

In the same period a year ago, Milpitas, Calif.-based, Palm had 35.8 percent of the market, compared to HP's 22.4 percent. Palm remains the market leader in the U.S.

"Palm usually performs well in Q4," Canalys analyst Rachel Lashford said. "So HP should not take this leadership position for granted. However, with the iPaq h1900 and h2200 series, HP now has a much stronger consumer offering."

For voice-centric devices, such as cellular phones, Nokia Corp. remained the leader in EMEA with 80.2 percent of the market, followed by Sony Ericsson, 14 percent, and Orange S.A., 5.3 percent. The number of Nokia shipments increased only 1 percent, while Sony Ericsson grew 7442 percent. A total of 838,560 units were shipped in the period.

For all devices shipped in the EMEA in the third quarter, Nokia was the leader with 45.3 percent of the market, followed by HP, 13.5 percent; Palm, 12.5 percent; Sony Ericsson, 7.9 percent; and Medion, 3.5 percent.