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Just 728,894 PDAs were sold worldwide in Q3 of this year, according to market-watchers IDC, down 39.3% on the same quarter last year.

It's the fifteenth straight quarter of sales decline, as leading manufacturers scale back their PDA product lines, or leave the market altogether and focus on smartphones.

""The handheld device market has been under constant pressure,

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with mobile phones and converged mobile devices appropriating many of the handheld's salient attributes," says Ramon T. Llamas, research analyst with IDC's mobile device technology and trends team. "Handheld product portfolios have suffered as vendors have reallocated their production resources."

However, Llamas says the PDA still has enough fans to survive as a niche market. "The handheld device market may be down, but is not necessarily out," he claims. "The handheld still has a loyal, if shrinking, following in developed economies, especially among enterprise users. In emerging markets, the appeal of the handheld devices seems anchored in the fact that, in the absence of a monthly service plan, it has a lower total cost of ownership compared to mobile phones and/or the converged mobile device."

Palm remains the PDA kingpin, accounting for nearly half of all sales, with HP, Mio, Fujitsu-Siemens and Sharp completing the top five manufacturers.