Gartner's Special Report: Should you believe the hype?

The Internet of Things is riding high at the Peak of Inflated Expectations as Big Data and wearable tech plummet toward the Trough of Disillusionment. Sound like gobbledygook? Well at least you didn’t pay Gartner for the privilege of reading up on the progress of emerging tech in the infamous hype cycle that the crystal ball …

[Tanuki]

Hype-cycles.

I remember some years ago being at a Gartner presentation where the guy said, in essence " any business that doesn't have a high-profile presence on Second Life is doomed to irrelevance in the next year "

I think we can all name a few businesses who took this advice to little benefit, and likewise plenty of businesses who didn't hear the message but for whom the Gartner-predicted doom is somehow taking longer to materialise than first predicted.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hype-cycles.

> I think we can all name a few businesses who took this advice

Err... No, I can't. In fact, I am aware of the existence of something called second life only through comments in here... I don't think I've ever come across it anywhere else on the net, and certainly not in the flesh.

Which sort of backs up your point.

[Irongut]

Re: Hype-cycles.

You could really, just think of all the IT businesses that ride these hype trains until they run out of steam then jump ship to the next big hype train. Let me give you one for free... IBM.

[BillG]

IoT Hype

I recently read an article on LinkedIn that said the Internet of Things will be a "multi-Trillion dollar market" by 2025. At that point you have to believe people are just making things up to get attention. Smart investors and technologists ignore these numbers because they know they are complete guesses with no basis in fact.

[Roo]

Re: IoT Hype

Gartner analysts will benefit hugely from the "right to be forgotten".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: IoT Hype

> Smart investors and technologists ignore these numbers because they know they are complete guesses with no basis in fact.

Much like every other financial plan out there? :)

[K]

Everytime time Gartner comes up with hyperbole like this, or somebody quotes a Gartner report, a cat video gets uploaded to the internet.

Please Gartner, think of the poor kittens.. stop this abuse, cease this madness, help clear the internet of all these cat videos!

[I ain't Spartacus]

Are you sure you've got that right? Isn't it that every time a cat video is uploaded to the internet, an analyst has to release a report full of bollocks?

Stop uploading those cat videos now!

[Tom 35]

No there is only a correlation

It needs more study but it appears that cat videos may be an automatic response to excessive bullshit posted to the net. along with Gartner it appears that Fox News, and most CEO speeches to share holders are linked to the problem.

In order to return the proper cat video balance to the web we need to work to reduce the amount of bullshit posted every day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Industry pundits and Hyperbole

Remember, by posting such an article (such as your presence on Half Life, predicting the end of traditional computing, the Internet of Things) industry pundits such as Gartner are performing their true function which is to raise their profile and their (perceived by people (marketeers) who don't know better) relevancy in the industry at this point in time. The fact that most of these predictions come to nothing is unimportant - by making some noise today, they get talked about.

[CAPS LOCK]

I think I speak for most people here when I say...

"No one cares what Gartner has been paid to say"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I think I speak for most people here when I say...

The problem is, most people here have idiots who work with them, or bigger idiots higher up the corporate food chain, these people read the Gartner report and take it as gospel.

November 2009, my CEO walks into the office after hearing the "Cloud" buzzword from another CEO, somehow he'd been brainwashed into thinking the Cloud was the future, fortunately those decisions rest with me, so after a little investigating, that idea got taken out back and put out of its misery :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I think I speak for most people here when I say...

Not quite. The real evil is committed by those that PAY Gartner for their drivel.

[MyffyW]

Re: I think I speak for most people here when I say...

Seems to be Gartner-baiting day on El Reg. Personally I value them as one voice (amongst many). The Pay-to-Play allegations have to be taken into account, of course, but given the credence senior management put in analysts you ignore them at your peril.

[.... incoming downvote]

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: I think I speak for most people here when I say...

"Seems to be Gartner-baiting day on El Reg."

Any day Gartner releases a report is Gartner-baiting day on El Reg.

[frank ly]

Magic Report

Is Gartner's Magic Quadrant or Hype Report anywhere near the ToD?

[Frankee Llonnygog]

The higher up in Gartner they are

The weirder they come across when presenting, especially when you see them on a giant screen. The top bods never blink and they inject

long

pauses at random points

in

their presentations, usually illustrated with the gesture commonly used by anglers to indicate the size of fish they didn't catch

[Anonymous Coward]

Silicon Valley has surpassed ...

... the Fashion Industry in Bullshit throughput.

[Doctor Syntax]

If words are not enough - and in this case they may not be

No, in this case they're too much.

[KrisMac]

Sorry Mr Kunert - You lost me at...

...'Gartner's Special..'

Gartner may indeed be 'Special' but nothing they have ever produced deserves that title..

[cracked]

Throw enough ...

... s**t at a wall and at least some of it will stick.

That's been the way innovation has happened in IT since ... well, as far as I know, since IT.

And it's probably unfair to blame just IT - Some movies get massive-hype and yet still fail to make back their costs.

And forgive El Reg its Gartner-Bashing fetish ... That tagline is up there for a reason ;-)