Hype Cycles

Gartner Inc.'s annual Hype Cycle Special Report provides a detailed look at technology maturity across the IT industry.

Each Hype Cycle provides a snapshot of key technologies and trends in a specific technology, topic, geographic region or industry domain.

Gartner introduced the idea of the Hype Cycle in 1995 as a commentary on the common pattern of human response to technology. Gartner's Hype Cycle characterizes the typical progression of an emerging technology, from overenthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual understanding of the technology's relevance and role in a market or domain. Each phase is characterized by distinct indicators of market, investment and adoption activities.

The Priority Matrix is a tool for prioritizing emerging technologies by forcing technology planners to look beyond the hype and assess technology opportunities in terms of their relative impact on the enterprise and the timing of that impact. In the Priority Matrix, the vertical axis focuses on the potential benefit of the technology (rather than on the expectation levels presented in the Hype Cycle).

The horizontal axis groups the technologies according to the same years-to-mainstream-adoption rating used on the Hype Cycle. The years-to-mainstream-adoption rating is a simple measure of risk based on the projected rate of maturation for a technology. High-priority investments appear in the top-left portion of the Priority Matrix, where technologies potentially have a high impact and have reached a reasonable level of maturity.

As taken from the Gartner's Hype Cycle Special Report for 2009 (31 July 2009).