A series of analyst reports paint a mixed picture for PDA sales, with worldwide sales down but the European market remaining buoyant.

Figures from IDC show that worldwide sales of PDAs were down by more than 10 per cent during the second quarter of 2003, the second consecutive quarter of falling shipments.

Meanwhile UK analyst Canalys found that EMEA sales of PDAs in were up over 50 per cent in the second quarter of 2003.

"It's been one of the best quarters for the past few years," said Andy Buss, an analyst at Canalsys.

"The European market has been driven by some good performances by Palm in the data area, and Germany has seen some major growth thanks to Medion, a Pocket PC with GPS and navigation software that supermarket chain Aldi has been selling."

Palm retains its top spot in the PDA league tables but Hewlett Packard has lost ground, down from over a third of the market last year to 25 per cent now. This is due to new low-cost competition from the likes of Dell and Viewsonic.

"PDAs are one of the fastest growing markets there is for us," said Andy Dow, commercial director at networking distributor Westcoast.

"It's still got plenty of room to grow. I've got a range of navigation accessories that are flying off the shelves, as are wireless and Bluetooth units.

"That tells me people are building solutions around these products for business use."