infoSync : Report says Palm, Handspring doomed Neither Handspring nor Palm have the financial muscle necessary to compete with Nokia, Ericsson/Sony, Siemens, Motorola, and now also Microsoft, according to the report which goes on to say that the PDA value chain and price structure means that products become 30% more expensive at retail level than those shipped through the value chain of the mobile industry.

The market for Smart Handheld Devices is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years, as 2.5G and 3G mobile services become widely available. Making use of these new services will require new terminals, and with almost 10 million units sold in 2000 alone, one should think that PDA manufacturers such as Palm and Handspring enjoy a head start in relations to the market for PDAs - but that's all wrong, according to Strand Consult.

Both companies are dwarfed by its now competitors - the manufacturers of mobile phones - who in 2000 sold 410 million units. Neither Palm nor Handspring have the distribution or financial power to compete with Nokia, Ericsson/Sony, Siemens, Motorola, and now also Microsoft, and nor have they any experience of operating in the value chain of the mobile industry.