PDAs are dead or dying. That's what we keep hearing. But if you take a broader view of what a personal digital assistant does, including the considerable leaps handhelds have taken in raw power, multimedia and wireless functionality over the years, the types of devices that could be defined, at least in part, as a PDA has broaden considerably since the first connected organizer, the Pilot, was released back in 1996.

Wireless, be it Bluetooth, 802.11b Wi-Fi or cellular technology has changed the PDA from a connected organizer that in part requires wires and a PC to integrate with the rest of our lives to something more universal, something more useful and something even more interactive and informative.

In fact, the apparent trend among high-end smartphones, devices that serve as PDAs and mobile phones, due later this year, such as Motorola's MPx and Nokia's 9500 Communicator, is to combine all three of these technologies into one device. It looks like Hewlett-Packard will even enter the smartphone picture by releasing a Pocket PC that features cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

For the foreseeable future, however, all manner of PDAs will continue to be relevant, as there are nearly as many types handhelds out there as users. From your first time buyer who needs the basics to those who go the smartphone route, requiring their information manager and chief means of communication, the mobile phone, be combined into a single device. And with hot spots and corporate and home Wi-Fi networking, handhelds that include integrated 802.11b is becoming as common today as those that didn't have the technology just a year ago.

Nevertheless, some are predicting that smartphones spell doom for PDAs. And if you take a cursory look at IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, you might be inclined to agree. IDC reports the worldwide market for handheld devices declined in the first quarter of 2004 by 11.7% year-on-year and dropped sequentially 33.1 percent to 2.2 million units.

According to IDC, while vendor commitment to entry-level devices at lower price points has helped to grow the handheld user base, many would-be handheld purchasers obtained their devices during the holiday shopping season in the fourth quarter of last year. As a result, despite growth in the European market, the seasonal slump hit vendors particularly hard during the first quarter of this year. The market was also strongly impacted by a number of vendors focusing on trimming down their product offerings and clearing their channels in preparation for spring product launches.

palmOne posted a sequential decline of 38.7% and a corresponding decrease in market share from 39.4% to 36.1%. However, palmOne will announce two Zire handhelds this quarter and, given the fact that the Zire family has surpassed 3 million units in fewer than 18 months, palmOne's shipments are expected to increase in the near future.

As for HP, despite the declining handheld market and a 32.9% sequential drop, HP posted the strongest year-over-year increase among the top 5 vendors with a rise of 24.8%. IDC said this increase, based on the strength of an array of devices hitting the entire spectrum of price points, and enabled HP to maintain its market share position of 25.7%.

IDC reported Sony, caught in the middle of a strategy shift to a streamlined set of products and a focus on improved PIM and other core handheld applications, saw its market share drop to single digits, 9.3%, while Dell came in fourth with 7.0% and Toshiba came in fifth with 2.2 percent of the market. All other handheld vendors combined accounted for 19.7 percent of the market.