Don’t believe the hype?

Gartner’s Hype Cycle charts the journey of new technology through five stages of development, from inception to production and, potentially, adoption. There are five phases and, earlier this year, we set out to examine them in detail. 

In the first part the cycle, we investigated the ‘Innovation Trigger’ – when something new first begins to receive attention…and has to learn to keep things real. 

Next, we looked at the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’, when early publicity can result in success – or failure. 

Waning interest, overhype, market unawareness – many things can combine to trip ventures up, even when things appear to be going well. We investigated the so-called ‘Trough of Disillusionment’. 

It’s ‘Slope of Enlightenment’ in week four, when new technology begins to find its feet and there’s a chance uptake will become widespread.

In our fifth and final article, we explored the ‘Plateau of Productivity’, when consumers finally embrace the respective technologies and begin to use them on a large scale.