Brace yourselves for Sony's handheld
By Richard Shim, ZDNet News
dailynews.yahoo.com
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Thoughts:
NPD Group recently released sales estimates showing sales of PDAs to double this year compared with 1999. In the first half of this year alone, 1.3 million handheld devices were sold -- the same number as all of 1999.
1.3 million in the first half. Are they SMOKING? How INCOMPETENT can NPD be? Palm sales are over $600 million for the first half, right? What, is the average handheld retailing for $1,000?
For a dose of reality, from theStreet.com a couple of months ago:
In its first quarter as an independent public company, Palm delivered more than 1.1 million of the pocket-sized computing devices, which store and transfer information to and from personal computers.
Continued from today's ZDnet:
Sales data from OneChannel.net shows a shortage of Palm units has affected the market since the second quarter, and that the situation has only gotten worse. "Sales for Q2 were about 45 percent lower than Q1," said OneChannel.net's editor in chief, Lisa Stapleton, attributing the Palm drop-off to supply shortages, seasonal aspects of the market and increasing competition from Handspring Inc. (Nasdaq:HAND - news) "Indeed, at the end of Q2, sales were about a third of what they were at the beginning of the same quarter."
And from onechannel.net:
Shortages Keep Palm PDAs from Meeting Second Quarter Demand
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 15, 2000 - Palm-OS-based PDA sales plunged in Q2, according to data collected by OneChannel.net, the Web-based e-commerce measurement and analysis hub for retailers and manufacturers. Sales in the second quarter were about 45 percent lower than the first due to supply shortages and possible increased competition from newcomer Handspring.
I think onechannel.net had better hire people who can at least read quarterly result press releases. And I'm not too impressed by their "Web-based e-commerce measurement and analysis hub."
This is what really gets me going. You know this is going to get quoted ad nauseam ("sales dropping!"), thanks to the 'desperate for copy' numerically illiterate.
Andre |
