As each year draws to a close, we can always count on a flurry of predictions for the tech industry over the coming 12 months. Our favorite soothsaying for 2012 came on Friday from Investor’s Business Daily, and it included a number of gems such as the fall of Apple. So why, exactly, is Apple set to falter in 2012? According to IBD, it’s because “the iPhone is boxy, flat and feeling stale,” while Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones “seems cooler.” The site also says Apple’s software advantage with iOS will diminish because “Google’s Android platform [is] now the fastest-growing mobile OS.” IDB’s Brian Deagon continues, “Smartphones and tablets will become commodity items and Apple will be eaten by the collective Android gang.” And while Apple is preparing to launch its first HDTV offering, IBD notes that Samsung is king of the television market as well. Apple will eventually be supplanted as the biggest tech company in the world, of course, but IBD probably would have been better off making this prediction in a year when Apple wasn’t preparing to launch a completely redesigned iPhone and a Siri-fueled HDTV. Even still, I’m sure we had as much fun reading the site’s predictions as the author had writing them. Other IBD forecasts for 2012: “Twitter will totter,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be fired, ultrabooks will be huge and “BlackBerry will go the way of Palm.”
