“If you can believe what some industry analysts have been saying, Apple should now be playing third fiddle in the smartphone wars. Android and Windows Phone would be ahead of iOS,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Apple would, I suppose, be destined to fall back into niche status.”
“Have you looked at the Windows Phone and BlackBerry market shares lately? Have you noticed how Microsoft is quickly unraveling the failed Nokia handset division purchase? Have you noticed how thousands of brand new Microsoft employees are being consigned to the unemployment lines?” Steinberg writes. “IDC… claims that Android will continue to gain share against iOS. But have you noticed that Android’s share is stagnant or falling slightly in the U.S. and elsewhere compared to iOS? That’s hardly gaining share. It goes back to the theory that Android, being open and partly open source, is destined to devour Apple.”
“The big problem with these well-connected industry analysis firms is that their pronouncements are taken seriously. They are quoted without question and never asked ‘show me how accurate you really are.’ The articles about them basically quote, or summarize, press releases without actually exploring the track records to see how previous predictions have fared.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We and others have routinely called out IDC, Gartner, and many others for inaccurate predictions over the years, as evidenced by the related articles below.
SEE ALSO:
IDC: Windows Phone will not surpass Apple’s iOS by 2018 – December 2, 2014
IDC: Windows Phone to surpass Apple’s iOS by 2016 – June 6, 2012
IDC: Windows Phone to surpass Apple’s iOS by 2015 – June 10, 2011Why did IDC lowball Apple’s Mac sales by 9.7% last quarter? – October 23, 2014
IDC again undercounts Mac unit sales – October 9, 2014
IDC and Gartner numbers do not jibe with Apple’s double digit U.S. Mac growth – July 27, 2014
The danger of using bogus IDC marketshare predictions to erroneously declare ‘Apple is losing to Android’ – June 10, 2014
Exposing IDC’s, Gartner’s, and Strategy Analytics’ PC, phone and tablet data on Apple – November 16, 2013
Smashing Apple: Is Strategy Analytics in Samsung’s pocket? – August 3, 2013
Strategy Analytics claims Android now dominates tablet market – July 31, 2013
Gartner and IDC trumpet wildly incongruous Mac unit sales estimates – April 11, 2013
Canalys unafraid to count iPad, puts Apple third in worldwide PC market share – January 26, 2011