European sales of mobile devices, including PDAs and mobile phones, grew by 55 per cent in the opening quarter of 2005 fuelled by soaring demand for smartphones, according to the latest market data from IDC.

The analyst firm estimates that shipments will reach 2.5 million units this quarter compared to 1.6 million in the corresponding period of 2004.

Although converged devices (voice-enabled PDAs and smartphones) remain the primary growth driver increasing overall share of the market to 73 per cent, standalone handhelds continued to see healthy demand in the consumer and enterprise segments.

IDC's European Mobile Devices Tracker noted that increases in enterprise adoption of devices, consumer contract renewals and the sustained popularity of handheld GPS systems ensured buoyant market growth.

GPS in particular drove consumer demand for standalone handhelds in the last quarter of 2004.

"Continued innovation by vendors with regard to channel strategy, emphasis on comparative pricing with dedicated systems, and declining ASPs of both GPS software and the handheld unit are serving to sustain demand," said Geoff Blaber, research analyst for European mobile devices at IDC.

"The introduction of new devices featuring integrated GPS antennas from a number of vendors such as Garmin, Mio and Navman, illustrates vendors' growing commitment to this space."

Overall the IDC research shows that for sales of all mobile devices in the first quarter of 2005 Nokia remains the runaway market leader with a 45 per cent share.

At a distant second is HP with eight per cent, while palmOne and RIM both clocked up six per cent. Sony Ericsson came in fifth overall.

In the standalone handheld PDA segment, IDC reported further erosion of market share for established vendors HP and palmOne during the first quarter, with negative growth of 10 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, in response to further growth for white box vendors.

Acer in particular witnessed "phenomenal" year-on-year growth, with a market share of 15 per cent. Its n35 handheld with integrated GPS proved successful across Europe, particularly in Germany and Spain.

Similarly, Medion maintained its progress from 2004, increasing its market share to 11 per cent and fourth position overall.

Shipments for vendors Asus, Mio and Yakumo all approached the 40,000 unit mark, serving to heighten market price sensitivity.

Despite healthy growth for handhelds, converged devices remained the primary driver of overall market growth.

Releases from Nokia such as the 3230 in the series 60 category as well as the new 9300 Series 80 Communicator were found to have driven growth of 63 per cent, with demand for the latest devices aiding shipments.

"The long anticipated release of the 9300 Communicator ensured that the launch was met with healthy demand during the first quarter. However, enterprise-focused, data-centric Series 80 devices still constituted less than six per cent," said Andrew Brown, programme manager for European mobile devices at IDC.

"Consumer adoption of Series 60 devices through handset upgrades and contract renewals are responsible for the majority of Nokia's converged device growth."

In the first quarter of 2005, Canadian vendor RIM enjoyed year-on-year growth of 368 per cent, although IDC noted that shipments of 150,000 represented a slowdown on the enormous sequential growth the vendor witnessed throughout 2004.