International Data Corporation (IDC) is a market research

Market research

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...

 and analysis firm specializing in information technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

, telecommunications and consumer technology. IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group

IDG

International Data Group is a technology media, research, event management, and venture capital organization.IDG evolved from International Data Corporation which was formed in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern and a friend, Fred Kirch...

. IDC is headquartered in Framingham

Framingham, Massachusetts

Framingham is a New England town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 68,318 as of the United States 2010 Census. -History:...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and claims to have over 1000 analysts in 50 countries.

Patrick J McGovern founded IDC in Massachusetts with a friend, Fred Kirch, in 1964 after a UNIVAC

UNIVAC

UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...

 executive complained to him about the lack of market research information available on the emerging computer industry. At the beginning, the company produced a computer industry data base and a newsletter, EDP Industry & Market Report.

Confusion about term IDC

International Data Corporation owns trademark IDC. At the same time, an unrelated entity, Interactive Data Corporation

Interactive Data Corporation

Interactive Data Corporation provides financial market data , analytics and related solutions to financial institutions, active traders and individual investors...

 is traded on NYSE under ticker IDC.

Criticism

Various IDC reports and forecasts were criticized for deficiencies in methodology. Notable cases include:

• Yearly joint BSA
  Business Software Alliance
  The Business Software Alliance is a trade group established in 1988 and representing a number of the world's largest software makers and is a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance...
  
  /IDC studies on software piracy
• IDC comparison of TCO of Linux vs Windows 2000
• IDC forecasts on Itanium sales