In an article by Robert Jaques over on vnunet.com it would seem that Microsoft have finally gotten their formula right, and ebbed the price down just that little bit to finally - for the first time. Overtake Palm OS sales for the first time on record.

"According to the latest report from Gartner, PDA shipments exceeded 2.8 million units in the third quarter of 2004, as Windows CE licences surpassed the Palm OS for the first time. Windows CE was found to account for 48.1 per cent of worldwide PDA shipments in third quarter of 2004. Palm OS units represented just 29.8 per cent of the market, down from 46.9 per cent in the same period last year."

"Overall, Gartner expects worldwide PDA shipments to total 11.9 million units in 2004, up approximately four per cent from 2003."

Some of those 11.9 million units are bound to include some of the new devices that we have seen here in the Handheld PC world over the last 11 months.

A cynic would say that Microsoft's original intent first with the H/PC and later with the PsPC and P/PC was to blow the competition out of the water - or at least give them a run for their money. With this milestone reached, and having in recent months taken a more user centric approach to design and restrictions of the Windows Mobile Platform. Any optimistic Handheld PC user might say that this is an excellent time to broaden the scope of Windows Mobile on consumer devices.
We shall await to see what comes in 2005 with bated breath.

View: VUNet.com