IoT, wearables and driverless cars are overhyped, but enlightenment awaits

Gartner report also suggests gesture control tech and enterprise 3D printing will become mainstream

The Internet of Things (IoT), wearables and driverless cars are currently overhyped in the technology market, which will soon lead to disillusionment with what the technologies can actually achieve.

This is the view of Gartner, which has released its annual Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report, detailing how numerous areas are currently being perceived in the market, as shown below.

So, while IoT, wearables and driverless cars are within the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations', they will soon slide into the ‘Trough of Disillusionment', as the world-changing benefits these technologies were meant to deliver fail to materialise.

The Trough is currently occupied by augmented reality, hybrid cloud computing and consumer 3D printing services.

However, while the Trough is not an ideal place to be, technologies can evolve from here into the ‘Slope of Enlightenment', as people understand the realistic benefits technologies can achieve.

Virtual reality technologies are on the cusp of entering this space, while gesture control and enterprise 3D printing are already there.

Betsy Burton, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, explained that the Hype Cycle report is a good way for IT leaders to understand how the market is positioned and where their innovation budgets should be spent.

"This year, we encourage CIOs and other IT leaders to dedicate time and energy on innovation, rather than just incremental business advances, while also gaining inspiration by scanning beyond the bounds of their industry," she said.

"As organisations continue the journey to becoming digital businesses, identifying and employing the right technologies at the right time will be critical."

Looking to the future, some of the technologies on the cusp of becoming hyped as the Next Big Thing in the IT landscape are quantum computing, the connected home and ‘people-literate computing'.

The IoT market may be overhyped at present, but industry commentators agree that it will become a mainstream part of the technology landscape soon, most likely within the next five years.

A report by analyst house Juniper said that the IoT market will be in rude health by 2020 with 38.5 billion devices deployed, a 285 percent increase on the 13.4 billion today.

Meanwhile, IDC estimated that the IoT market will be worth $1.7tn by 2020.