Mobile, UIs and Web 2.0 can transform business

Organisations that want to be successful, both financially and in terms of reputation, should be keeping a close eye on the worlds of Web 2.0, user interfaces (UIs) and mobile technologies, according to analyst Gartner.

These three areas have been flagged as having a transformational impact in Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2007 report, and therefore identified as things that business and technology decision makers need to be adopting in various guises over the next decade.

In the last year, more consumers and businesses alike have woken up to how the web is and will evolve to aid communication and commercial activity, with key developments in the areas of wikis, mashups, enterprise RSS feeds and social networking, according to Gartner, who believes its transformational effect will ramp up over the next few years.

Similarly, after a long period of stagnation, new and emerging UI technologies are coming into fruition, such as electronic paper, gesture recognition and virtual environments.

Mobile continues to be a key area that businesses are and need to be watching, advises the analyst. Areas reaching maturation slowly, such as RFID, sensor networks and location-aware technologies, will soon start to offer benefits on a par with technologies that have more obvious impact, it claims.

"Web 2.0 continues to be a major area of activity in the enterprise this year. We will see companies steadily gain more experience and success with Web 2.0," said Jackie Fenn, a Gartner research fellow.

"We are also seeing radical user interface innovations, such as gesture recognition, from major vendors like Nintendo and Microsoft, while mobile technologies and location services remain a staple topic for evaluation within emerging technology roles."

Gartner is more than aware that many of the technologies referenced in its hype cycle report are not new. More so, it claims that the secret of success for companies lies in how these technologies are applied that will translate into innovation and business impact.

"The technology for 3-D printing has been around for two decades but its appeal and business impact were limited to the field of rapid prototyping for industrial design," said Fenn.

"In recent years printer costs have come down while printing capabilities have increased, broadening the appeal of 3-D printing. We predict that this will cause the market to expand to on-demand and on-site printing of models and spare parts, as well as the hobbyist and consumer markets, where the technology might be used to create models of avatars or even children and pets."

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