While this piece of information from Canalys may stun you EMEA Palm users, it comes as no surprise to those of us who are satisfied PocketPC owners.  PocketPC sales are blowing the doors off of those of Palm devices sold in Europe. 

Microsoft showed stunning growth in the first quarter of 2004 versus 2003 in both voice and data centric devices. PalmOne remained virtually flat in data centric devices and was up 19% in the voice centric category, though their share in voice centric devices is actually dropping going from 1.6% of the market in Q1 2003 to 1.0% in Q1 2004.

Note that all PalmOne figures have been restated to include Handspring numbers. What about the Treo 600 though? "Most of Microsoft's smart phone shipments so far have been tied to the Orange network, but with the MPx200 becoming available on other operators' networks and with more models appearing over the coming months, we would expect shipments to increase substantially. PalmOne's Treo 600 hasn't done as well in EMEA as elsewhere; it needs more models and broader operator coverage to become a contender in the smart phone space."

The one thing that this chart does not point out is that the Symbian share considers their penetration into the mobile phone market where Microsoft has made little if any headway thus far.  Even with that and with all the handhelds built on Palm, including the Handspring treo line of PDA phones, Microsoft is eating up the competition.  I love it.

"Having Motorola on board is a big help for Microsoft," said analyst Rachel Lashford, "Most of Microsoft's smart phone shipments so far have been tied to the Orange network, but with the MPx200 becoming available on other operators' networks and with more models appearing over the coming months, we would expect shipments to increase substantially. PalmOne's Treo 600 hasn't done as well in EMEA as elsewhere; it needs more models and broader operator coverage to become a contender in the smart phone space. The momentum in this segment, however, remains with the Symbian-based vendors."

In the interest of full disclosure, my own personal device is an HP IPAQ 4155 (builtin WiFi, Bluetooth, SD slot).  I love that device.  It's small, light, sturdy, sleak and it screams, even with all the crap I put on it.  Bottom line…It looks like Microsoft has finally produced a mobile operating system in WME 2003 that device makers can take to market with compelling and reliable solutions.