Analyst firm Gartner has just released its latest Hype Cycle white paper, detailing some of the biggest trends in technology this year. According to the report, cloud computing, e-books and Internet TV are at the "Peak of Inflated Expectations," while this year’s biggest hit Twitter is said to have "tipped over the peak" and is just about to enter the infamous "Trough of Disillusionment." Social software suites and other microblogging services are likewise starting their downward trend. Interestingly, web 2.0 is deemed to be nearly past the Trough and entering the "Slope of Enlightenment."

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One of our current topics of interest, RFID, is stuck right at the bottom of the Trough of Disillusionment. But another RWW hot topic, Augmented Reality, is on the rise.

Web 2.0, cloud computing, Internet TV and RFID are all labeled "transformational" by Gartner, meaning that they are predicted to have a big impact on the market. Microblogging is only ranked "moderate," so Gartner doesn’t think that Twitter is a very meaningful technology.

We can’t help but feel that Gartner may be underestimating the impact of microblogging. It remarks that services like Twitter enable "new kinds of fast, witty, easy-to assimilate exchanges." Microblogging is rated as having a "moderate" impact on business, however Gartner does not analyze the over-arching trend of Real-time web that microblogging exemplifies. They do make a good point that "channel pollution" is a current issue with these services, however this is where the ecosystem of search and filtering products – around Twitter especially – are proving their worth. See also our post earlier today about the new distributed forms of microblogging that may rise to take Twitter’s place over time.

Gartner states that Cloud computing is "changing the way the IT industry looks at user and vendor relationships." It points to vendors such as Amazon.com, Google, Microsoft and salesforce.com.

Regarding eBooks, Gartner has a bob each way: "This technology is potentially revolutionary if the issues that have suppressed adoption are addressed." It lists Amazon.com, Fujitsu, Plastic Logic and Sony as sample vendors.

Gartner’s conclusion about RFID is similar to our own – that it’s moving slowly. Gartner notes that "the number of leading retailers working with it [RFID] did not grow greatly through 2008 and will not grow significantly during the next two years."

On Web 2.0, Gartner archly notes that "the Web 2.0 hype has peaked as constituencies vie for the next generation of the Web." However it also puts Web 2.0 in the "early mainstream" and is bullish on its future. Note: we reviewed the latest attempt at the next buzzword, Web squared, last week.

Overall, this report is an interesting high level view of the state of technology. It’s quite business focused though, so Gartner perhaps overlooks some of the more exciting new consumer Web trends that we’ve been writing about this year on ReadWriteWeb: real-time Web, Internet of Things, mobile web, to name a few.

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Gartner Hype Cycle 2009: Web 2.0 Trending Up, Twitter Down

From “massively small products” shop Particle, itself a startup newly out of stealth mode, comes a new app: Robo.to, pitched to us as a digital calling card.

Although the app first struck us as a skinnier Retaggr with an animated GIF-esque Flash avatar slapped on the top, something quirky and cute drew us back and elicited deeper digging. We read on the Particle blog that their goal was “to design something a user can easily navigate, without really thinking too hard about it.” We turned back to the adorable Robo.to app; had we simply been thinking too hard?

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After a few initial minutes of tinkering around the site, we were able to generate this:

The resulting badge appears in a narrow, mobile-friendly form and links to a page with any pointers we choose to direct visitors to our other online homes. Robo.to let us record a few soundless seconds of video and was then kind enough to help us share that information with a limited amount of text in a few other places on the social web, such as Facebook and Twitter. The app also allows for mobile uploads via email.

It’s an amuse-bouche for the Internet stalker’s palate, and it’s delightful.

The only two questions that remained after Robo.to won our heart are as follows, and they’re the same questions we’d ask any free-to-a-good-home puppy:

1. How will it generate revenue?

2. How we will remember to feed it?

The social web is, metaphorically speaking, an ocean of apps. Some are better designed, some are more functional, some are better integrated with our existing online lives. Within the sea, there are continents (Google’s suite of apps, Facebook, YouTube), and there are islands. Each of us has our own particular haunts in that regard, sites that warrant a weekly or daily check-in or post. I’ve adopted Yahoo! Meme as one of mine to keep an eye on, and I get around to Last.fm just about as often.

Then there are the apps that, while nifty, don’t have the power to become a continent or an island because they can’t consistently draw users back. They become digital jetsam, and adoption declines after initial rounds of publicity are over.

We’re not damning Robo.to to this particular fate, but we want to know: Why will we return to Robo.to and continue to upload content? What will remind us? Is returning even necessary? Has the Particle team succeeded in creating an app so tiny it’s virtually invisible?

And without consistent user traffic prompted by that sticky, infectious property the best new apps have (hel-lo, Twitter!), how will Particle have the leverage to generate revenue?

Also, our Internet friends were way confused on why there’s no sound in the video clips.

What do you make of Robo.to so far? Are you more confused or delighted? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to link to your newly created profile on the site so we can watch your clips.

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Tiny App Confuses, Delights: Check Out Robo.to, Next-Gen Animated GIFs

Pixelpipe, a great service that allows its users to distribute documents and media files to over 100 social media services, just released over 50 new single-purpose applications through the Android Market. The company also submitted the same number of apps to the iPhone App Store and the Nokia Ovi Store. Why so many apps? As Pixelpipe’s CEO and founder Brett Butterfield tells us, the company realized that about half of Pixelpipe’s users only used the service to forward files to one service.

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In order to serve this market better and to link its name closer to the brand names of the services it supports, the company decided to release co-branded versions of its mobile app for 50 of the 100 services it currently supports. Pixelpipe will sell these co-branded versions of its app for $0.99 and a pro version with support for all the 100 services that Pixelpipe currently works with will sell for $1.99.

The iPhone apps still have to go through Apple’s approval process, which can take a while, but the Android apps will be available today and the Nokia apps should be available in about one week.

Pixelpipe’s App Factory

As Butterfield told us, the company has automated most of the app development process, so whenever Pixelpipe adds a new service, a new mobile app can also be created with very little effort.

App Store SEO

Overall, this seems like a very smart move. The company started to experiment with co-branded Android apps for a few services like Facebook, Twitter, and Photobucket a few days ago. As these apps actually include the name of the service in their titles (“Twitter for Pixelpipe”), they are much easier to find for consumers who would otherwise never have heard of Pixelpipe. After all, as we pointed out earlier today, most users rely on Top 10 lists and browsing through categories to find interesting new mobile apps.

As Pixelpipe told us, these apps are already outselling the company’s own app by a significant margin and Pixelpipe has heard from a number of services who would like to partner with the company and promote the apps.

We think this is an interesting story, as it points out some of the problems developers face when trying to market their apps. Also, while social media mavens love the fact that Pixelpipe Pro can send documents, audio, video, and pictures to 100 other social media services, for most users, this is simply overkill and just generates confusion.

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Pixelpipe Announces 50 New Mobile Apps for Android, iPhone, and Nokia