The Hype-Cycle for Emerging Technologies for the year 2011 has been released by Gartner. As has been the trend from the past less than 60% of the technologies listed last year find a place in this year’s report. Unlike last year, there are not many glaring omissions. (Here is an analysis of last year’s report). However, as is the case like last year, few technologies appear from nowhere on:

Climbing the Slope

Sliding into the Trough

(If you are new to Gartner Hype Cycle, there is a short explanation at the end of this post)

What Else Is New?

On the Rise

At the Peak

So what is the bigger picture? What can we decipher as the larger technology trend?

Cloud Computing is too nebulas a term to survive long – it is going to splinter
Here are six (out of 42) technologies listed in the report which are directly or indirectly related to cloud.

1. Cloud Computing
2. Cloud/Web Platforms
3. Hosted Virtual Desktops
4. Big Data & Extreme Information Processing and Management
5. In-Memory Database Management Systems
6. Private Cloud Computing

Human and Machine – Machine and Machine are getting connected like never before
How we connect to machine is evolving very fast. How machines are connecting with each other is also evolving very fast. Machines are also becoming more autonomous. There are ten technologies listed which goes on to enhance this connection.

1. Human Augmentation
2. Computer-Brain Interface
3. Mobile Robots
4. Natural Language Question Answering
5. Internet of Things
6. Augmented Reality
7. Virtual Assistants
8. Gesture Recognition
9. Machine-to-Machine Communication Services
10. Speech Recognition

Here are few interesting links which you may enjoy:

• Your Own Personal Robot
• Robot Suits Transform Humans into Super Strong Cyborgs
• Robots Are Changing the Future of Telecommuting

How Consistent Is the Hype Cycle Compared to Previous Years?
This is how I measure consistency. I count all the technologies mentioned in the current year’s hype cycle. Then I count the number of those technologies which was also mentioned in last year’s hype cycle. The ratio expressed as a percentage is the degree of consistency.

This year I have added another measure that is instead of matching it with technologies mentioned last I have also matched it with technologies mentioned in any of the past years.

Here are the consistency figures from year 2004 onwards.

For Those of You Who Are Not Familiar with Gartner’s Hype-Cycle
Here is a short explanation.

The assumption behind it is that every new technology creates an initial hype when everybody is talking about it. As a result an inflated expectation gets created around that technology. Since new technologies take time to mature and deliver value, it very rarely lives up to the initial hyped expectation. Therefore, after a peak of inflated expectation disillusionment follows till it reaches a trough. After this, some technologies dies a natural death and are forgotten. However, there are some which starts delivering value and people starts adopting them. When sufficient number of people adopts it, the technology is said to have reached the mainstream. The hype-cycle is represented as a graph and each technology of interest is plotted on the graph. Gartner also predicts the timeframe of each technology to reach mainstream.