Abstract

In 2001, the consumer markets went stale. Combined with the sudden surge of Smartphone in 2003, PDA market growth began to slow. Some traditional standalone PDA markets even declined, forcing the transformation of PDA to other applications. Mobile phones and media player continued to expand into PDA territory, gradually increasing the size of the handheld device market. Major application processor suppliers are seeking to position themselves in light of this trend. Whether Intel, the cynosure of the PC sector, or late-comer Samsung, or TI and Motorola, which excel at wireless voice all major application processor suppliers are attempting to expand into the integrated handheld market based on their particular strengths. For the short term Intel and TI have the leading position. Motorola is committed to breaking away from DragonBall, but the MXC platform with which it hopes to turn around its fate in the market is still just getting off the ground. Coupled with brand-name vendor and PDA makers' unfamiliarity with the new platform, Motorola's future success remains to be seen.

Furthermore, the individual domains of PDA, mobile phone, and media player are expanding and mixing to form an integrated handheld device market in which each big application processor makers must formulate strategies for seizing the high ground. With growth stagnating in the pure PDA market, processor makers will develop suitable handheld device platform solutions with renewed aggressiveness, and building on their existing customer base of brand-name PDA vendors to add new customers, such as handset makers like Motorola and Sony Ericsson, which have both rolled out Smartphones and support an even greater number of multimedia applications. Media players for MP3 or gaming present another customer segment, such as Apple's iPod or Sony's PSP. Such devices not only add PDA functions, but in the future will also support wireless voice applications.