http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analyst In this case, IDC is a tech market research firm that has a stable of tech analyst th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analyst In this case, IDC is a tech market research firm that has a stable of tech analyst that research and evaluate the a market and distill their work into a fancy book report. There are others like Gartner and Forrester that do something similar. Tech companies, media companies and investment banks buy these reports to keep track of the latest trends.