allNetDevices: Windows CE Market Penetration Evaporated Before Pocket PC Release

From allNetDevices

April 28, 2000 — Retail sales of Windows CE-based handhelds
all but disappeared prior to this month’s release of Microsoft’s
next-generation Pocket PC devices, according to a study by NPD Intelect.

The study shows that handhelds sold by Palm were responsible for
87.3 percent of handheld dollar sales in the retail channel during
February of 2000.  This is an increase of almost 22 percent
compared to February, 1999, according to NPD Intelect.

Palm’s led accelerated throughout 1999. A previous NPD Intelect
study found it had garnered 84.9 percent dollar share in
December.

Casio, the leading Windows CE vendor, saw the dollar share of
its Windows CE devices plummet by more than 7 percent from
February, 1999 to February 2000.  Hewlett-Packard’s dollar
share dropped more than 3 percent, according to the study.

Dollar Shares For Handheld Key Brands

Data courtesy NPD Intelect

The study covers sales through department and discount stories,
computer and office supply stores, mail order and corporate
resellers.  It doesn’t cover sales over the Web or direct
sales by a vendor. 

Hewlett-Packard and Compaq sell widely using their own sales
force and those figures would not show up in the survey. 
Similarly, until recently, Handspring sold its popular Palm
OS-based Visor handhelds only over the Internet; those sales
figures also would not appear in this study.