idc

Tablets are gaining popularity worldwide, and Apple's iPad continues to capitalize, a new report from market research firm IDC has found.

During the third quarter of 2010, the worldwide tablet market grew by 45.1 percent, IDC reported. All told, vendors shipped 4.8 million units during the quarter, up from the 3.3 million they shipped in the second quarter of 2010. IDC said that Apple's iPad enjoyed 87.4 percent market share during the period, tallying 4.2 million units shipped worldwide.

IDC estimates that 17 million tablets were shipped worldwide in 2010. That figure is expected to grow exponentially in 2011 with an estimated 44.6 million tablets shipped. In 2012, IDC said that it expects 70.8 million tablets to hit store shelves.

IDC's tablet findings follow a recent report from research firm Forrester, which claims about 10.3 million tablets were sold in the U.S. during 2010. Like IDC, Forrester sees significant growth in the tablet space going forward, with an expected 24.1 million tablet purchases in the U.S. in 2011. Forrester said it believes U.S. tablet sales will reach 35.1 million next year.… Read more

Following its modest growth last quarter, the PC market saw its strongest quarter of the year, while managing to miss the expectations of research firms IDC and Gartner.

According to the Quarterly PC Tracker Survey released today by IDC, overall worldwide PC shipments grew 2.7 percent year-on-year during the fourth quarter, with Gartner reporting a slightly larger 3.1 percent as part of its quarterly report. Both numbers missed the firms' expectations, which IDC had predicted at 5.5 percent and Gartner at 4.8 percent.

IDC said that one of the big reasons for the "modest" … Read more

If you think mobile applications are popular now, a new report predicts you haven't seen anything yet.

This year, consumers worldwide will have downloaded 10.9 billion mobile apps, according to a report from IDC released today. But that figure will pale in comparison to how many apps users download in 2014.

By that time, IDC believes 76.9 billion mobile apps will be downloaded in a single year. Given that popularity, IDC said that mobile-app revenue around the world could surpass $35 billion in 2014, up from an estimated $4.9 billion this year.

Going forward, IDC said … Read more

Sales of disk storage systems jumped in the third quarter, according to figures released by research firms IDC and Gartner.

Worldwide revenue for external disk storage systems grew 19 percent year over year to a quarterly total of just less than $5.2 billion, IDC said Friday. Gartner put the total for external controller-based disk storage sales at $4.6 billion--a rise of 16 percent--in its report Friday. The third quarter of 2009 saw a decline in storage system sales, giving some bounce to the size of this year's revenue increases. Even so, the rises do reflect a burst … Read more

Mobile devices will have a big impact on buying behavior this holiday-shopping season, according to a new study from market researcher IDC.

An IDC survey of more than 1,000 American consumers in September shows that mobile devices are expected to give consumers "greater advantage as they engage retailers."

Over one-third of respondents said that they plan to use their smartphones to improve their shopping experience during the holidays. They plan to "search for price and product information" in stores, as well as search for "merchandise availability." About 45 percent of respondents said that … Read more

Sluggish demand took a bite out of chip sales and shipments toward the end of the summer, says a new study out today from research firm IDC.

For the third quarter, worldwide microprocessor sales rose only 2.5 percent from the second quarter, while shipments inched up just 2.1 percent from the prior quarter. On a year-over-year basis, results were healthier, with chip sales rising 24.1 percent and shipments 8.6 percent over the third quarter of 2009.

Typically, global chip sales jump around 9 percent from the second to the third quarter, while shipments increase 10.6 … Read more

U.S. computer sales were pretty disappointing during the past three months, unless you're talking about Macs.

According to the Quarterly PC Tracker Survey released by IDC today, Apple shipped 1.99 million Macs in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2010. That's good for 10.6 percent of the 18.9 million PCs shipped in the U.S., putting Apple's share at its highest in the U.S. in the company's history, according to IDC.

While that's still far behind Hewlett-Packard's 24.3 percent share and Dell's 23.1 percent … Read more

App developers praise Apple's iOS for its strong market share and revenue stream, but a huge number see Android as the platform with the most diverse potential over the long haul.

Among the more than 2,000 developers surveyed this past month by IDC and Appcelerator, 72 percent said Android is best positioned to power a larger and greater variety of devices in the future, compared with 25 percent who said the same about Apple. As a result, 59 percent of the app developers favor Android's long-term outlook versus 35 percent for iOS, according to the "Appcelerator … Read more

Symbian and Android will dominate the mobile operating system market by 2014, research firm Gartner said Friday.

Gartner expects that Symbian and Android together will account for 59.8 percent of the total worldwide mobile OS market by 2014, split almost equally--Symbian with 30.2 percent, and Android with 29.6 percent.

Android is already closing the gap with the market leader. By the end of 2010, Gartner says, Google's Android will sneak into second place behind Nokia-backed Symbian with 17.7 percent market share, compared to Symbian's 40.1 percent. At the end of 2009, Android OS … Read more