HP continued its stronghold in worldwide PDA (personal digital assistant) market share for 2002 as the No. 1 Pocket PC vendor worldwide, with more than 52 percent of the Windows(R) Pocket PC market, according to preliminary results released Monday by Gartner Dataquest.

The data shows that HP sustained positive quarter-to-quarter growth sequentially worldwide and remains the No. 2 PDA vendor around the globe. According to Gartner, HP shipments totaled more than 1.6 million for the year.

From the third quarter to the fourth quarter in 2002, HP grew faster than the overall market, with shipments increasing from 292,850 to 438,069, according to Gartner Dataquest.

In addition, HP reached the 3 million unit sales mark and continues to demonstrate successful execution of its post-merger plan. This milestone comes only nine months after surpassing the 2 million mark and only eight months after the completion of the merger with Compaq Computer Corporation.

“By continuing to drive industry-leading innovation with industry-leading value, HP remains a force in the PDA market,” said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president and general manager, HP Mobile Computing Global Business Unit. “As we introduce new handhelds into the market, we will continue to deliver new and exciting options to our customers.”

The company introduced two new handhelds in fall 2002, including one of the thinnest and lightest Pocket PCs ever — the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h1910. In addition, the company introduced the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5450 — the industry’s first handheld to integrate biometrics security, wireless LAN network access(2) (802.11b) and Bluetooth wireless capability.