PDAs are dead, or so they tell me.

I'm not sure I believe that. By the way, for the purposes of this article, I'm lumping smartphones and mobile managers into the PDA space. While the PDA as defined by the original Palm may be disappearing, the type of handheld computing it pioneered is finally coming into its own.

We've all heard the stories. Sales are dropping, the PDA is over, its heyday has passed. All the reporters and analysts have latched on tight to that story and we see it parroted by someone just about every week. There's just one problem with that idea. It's not true. In fact, PDA sales are on pace this year to outsell 2001, which had previously been the best year ever in this market. That's record sales in both dollars and units sold in 2005. If PDAs are dead, who's buying so many of them and why? It might be helpful to look back at the PDA golden age and see who was buying them then, and why they stopped.

In the late 90s into 2001, PDAs were status symbols and fashion accessories as well as organizers. Like Blackberries and iPods today, many bought them because they were the hip tech toy of the moment. The best sellers of the day were the Visor, the Palm Vx and the Compaq iPAQ 3600 series, all slick and fashionable in their own way. In short, they were a fad. In late 2001, two things happened that put the damper on that fad.

First, 2001 was the great tech crash. Lots of white collar tech workers, the kind of people who tended to gravitate towards techie toys, got laid off that year. I was one of them. A lot of people in the PDA’s target market simply didn’t have the money for them anymore. Secondly, the terrorist attacks of September 11 caused a lot of people, at least temporarily, to rethink their priorities and on what they were willing to spend money. In the somber mood of 2002, PDAs weren’t as “fun” anymore.

And yet, they survived. PDAs continued to sell, in smaller numbers that before, but enough to keep the biggest players alive. Palm and HP stayed in the game, and Dell joined in. The conventional wisdom, though, was that it was a temporary respite, a product lingering on its deathbed.

This year as already seen the return of the PDA. Already approaching the record sales of 2001, PDAs should reach new heights in 2005. I think I know why. In the doldrums between 2001 and now, the “kitsch” has worn off of the PDA and people have started to see it for what it is: an essential tool for many white-collar workers.

Modern PDAs are almost all connected to the internet, either directly or via Bluetooth to a cell phone. Most come with a basic office suite, a web browser, and an email client along with the organizer functions. They’ve become true handheld computers, taking the place of a laptop in some cases. More than just a “digital daytimer,” today’s PDAs give you what you need to do your job, not just keep you organized. And the market has noticed.

I don’t think we’ll ever see the days of a Claudia Schiffer or Michael Jordan Palm again, be we don’t have to. PDAs have passed the gimmick phase and become real computers. The Treo 650 and the LifeDrive are just the beginning of a mobile computing renaissance. While traditional format PDAs like the Zires and Tungstens and iPAQs might fade into the background, their descendents will become ever more prominent in daily life. Smartphones and minitablets are here to stay.

The PDA is dead. Long live the handheld computer.