{"id":4363,"date":"2013-01-31T11:44:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T10:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=4363"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:39:44","slug":"the-hype-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2013\/01\/31\/the-hype-cycle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hype Cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have always been interested in technology and innovation. I do not think of myself as a “gadget freak”, though others might have a different view. However, when something new comes along, even if I am not an “early adopter”, I am always on the lookout for things that might improve my life.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I am often disappointed. So often a device either does not work at all or simply fails to live up to expectations. This is making me more cautious. I thought that this was just a phenomenon that was associated with age, but I recently discovered that it is much more general …<\/p>\n

I am sure that everyone is familiar with the sequence of events when a new technology becomes available or a new gadget is announced. It starts off as the greatest thing since sliced bread and is going to solve a whole load of problems. It never quite delivers on this promise and everyone is disappointed. Then a surge of realism occurs and the technology\/device finds its right place in the world.<\/p>\n

I can think of any number of examples where this pattern has occurred: radio, television, telephone, the Internet, personal computers, smart phones, tablets … I now learn that this sequence is called the Hype Cycle<\/a> and it looks like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was mooted by Gartner about 20 years ago and I think that it makes a lot of sense. Their perception of its use seemed to be from a purchaser’s point of view. If you can figure out where something is on the Hype Cycle, you can decide whether it is the time to invest [in the product or the company behind it].<\/p>\n

I have been pondering whether it has other uses. As I work in marketing, I wondered if it could be a tool for determining how to present or portray a product. Possible approaches, given the knowledge of a product’s current place in the cycle, might be “Best thing since sliced bread”, “Not as bad as others on the market”, “Solid and well established” …<\/p>\n

BTW, it seems to me that the Hype Cycle is not really a cycle, which implies some repetition. Maybe the Hype Curve or Hype Trajectory might be a better term.<\/p>\n

BTW2, sliced bread was first sold nearly a century ago. What did people use as the benchmark for goodness before then?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always been interested in technology and innovation. I do not think of myself as a “gadget freak”, though…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10140,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363\/revisions\/10140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4363"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=4363"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=4363"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}