Technological hype is sensational promotion of technology. It can refer to a particular product or a range of related pieces of technology that use the same operating principle or offer similar benefits. Alternatively it can apply to all technology that is promoted as offering improvements in the quality of life or productivity. Technological hype can be generated by individual companies, corporations, industry associations, whole governments or individuals. As most technology is developed by profit-making organisations, the hype is generated to maximise sales of the new technology. Governments may promote technology in this way as part of a drive to improve the quality of life, improve the economy or respond to industry lobbyists. Individuals who promote a given technology may be researchers or inventors interested in gaining publicity or finding a commercial application for their work. Some individuals also advocate a given technology out of the belief that it offers personal or societal benefits. Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely controversial, loud, attention-grabbing, or otherwise sensationalistic. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A corporation (usually known in the United Kingdom and Ireland as a company) is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name... Lobbying is the practice of private advocacy with the goal of influencing a governing body, in order to ensure that an individuals or organizations point of view is represented in the government. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Hype is closely tied with enthusiasm, but implies communication: Hype is intended to induce enthusiasm in recipients. Hype can induce desire, motive, interest, energy. Unwanted hype has negatively effects recipients, who will likely resist the hype, and may seek to undermine it. Or, if the person agrees with the hype, the person may hype it themselves. As an innovation becomes popular, it works through clusters of people, and resembles an excitation network. Enthusiasm (Greek: enthousiasmos) originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god. ...

When a new technology is introduced, the innovators get excited by a concept. They introduce the concept to people, who then may get excited, or may reject initial hype. If they particularly agree with the idea, they may hype it themselves, to still others. The process repeats.

There is an idea called Gartner's Hype Cycle, that says that after an idea is accepted by many people, there is a disillusion. Realities behind the idea are separated from the idea itself. But with time and maturity, the idea may actually carry through, while people recollect from the idea, and it's backlash. The Garter Group is an analyst/research house, based in the United States, that provides opinions, advice and data on the global information technology industry. ...

Many people use the phrase "hype" entirely disparagingly. "Hype," to these speakers, is anything that is not worth paying attention to. "Justified acclaim" is the name for the response to hype that actually followed through. The mechanics underlying hype and justified acclaim may be identical, but the different labels are applied, on the basis of subsequent success or failure.

Because of the logistic curve nature of technology adoption, it is difficult to tell, when a new technology arrives, whether hype is justified, or excessive. The logistic function or logistic curve is defined by the mathematical formula: for real parameters a, m, n, and . ...

Two common errors in the early stages of a new technology are:

• fitting an exponential curve to the first part of the growth curve, and assuming eternal exponential growth.
• fitting a linear curve to the first part of the growth curve, and assuming that takeup of the new technology is disappointing.

Similarly, in the later stages, the opposite mistakes can be made relating to the possibilities of technology maturity and market saturation. In mathematics, a quantity that grows exponentially (or geometrically) is one that grows at a rate proportional to its size. ...

In an extreme form hype does not relate to an actually existing product. Software that is hyped before it exists is sometimes called vaporware. Vaporware is software or hardware which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. ...

The popular media rarely questions or investigates hype claims by academic researchers. Almost daily we read reports of a new "breakthrough" which "could" make (cancer, hunger, poverty, pollution, terrorism...) a thing of the past. The fact that an academic researcher makes the claim is enough to get top coverage in the popular media.