This is where understanding the hype cycle becomes important. The graphic shown here plots visibility or hype on the vertical axis and time along the horizontal axis. You ve seen this played out over and over again in the market place the technology trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, the slope of enlightenment, and the plateau of productivity. Note the emergence of biometrics as a technology trigger, and the reemergence of voice recognition on the slope of enlightenment. Network computers as opposed to network computing have move down the hype curve somewhat.
Network computing is more about software architecture than it is about hardware devices.
We ll talk more about network computing in a few minutes. The biggest success story is of course the Internet and the Web, and the use of these technologies within enterprises to create Intranets.