'Big data', 'cloud computing', 'bring your own device (BYOD)', 'social analytics', '3D printing', 'Near Field Communication (NFC) payment', and 'media tablets' are some of the fastest-moving technologies identified in market-watcher Gartner's latest Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies.

Gartner's 2012 Hype Cycle Special Report provides strategists and planners with an assessment of the maturity, business benefit and future direction of more than 1,900 technologies, grouped into 92 areas. New Hype Cycles for 2012 include 'big data', the 'Internet of Things', 'in-memory computing', and 'strategic business capabilities (SBC)'.

Gartner analysts say that these technologies have 'moved noticeably' along the Hype Cycle since last year, while consumerisation is now expected to reach the Plateau of Productivity in two to five years, down from five to 10 years in 2011. Bring your own device (BYOD), 3D printing and social analytics are some of the technologies identified at the Peak of Inflated Expectations in this year's Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle, Gartner adds.

"The theme of this year's Hype Cycle is the concept of 'tipping points'," says Hung LeHong, research vice president at Gartner. "We are at an interesting moment, a time when many of the scenarios we've been talking about for a long time are almost becoming reality. The 'smarter smartphone' is a case in point. It's now possible to look at a smartphone and unlock it via facial recognition, and then talk to it to ask it to find the nearest bank ATM."

Edited: 20 August 2012 at 03:42 PM by James Hayes