... unit shipments for those devices will exceed 1.1 billion by 2012 and reach 1.84 billion units by 2016.
“Those are enormous numbers,” O’Donnell says. “Yes, most of those will be smartphones, but PCs and tablets are still relevant devices. They’re all part of a large computing ecosystem.”
Users' increasing dependence on several devices will have an impact on the operating systems running all of those devices. While IDC projects Windows-based devices to slip from a 36% share to a 25% share of all devices by 2016, Android and iOS will account for 31% and 17% of devices, meaning that none will really hold a dominant lead over any of the others.
Says O’Donnell: “It’s going to be a very diverse world. There’s not one solution. There’s no one winner here. If I’m an application developer or service, I have to be cognizant of the fact that I have to [work on] multiple platforms.”
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