Technologies born from an invention usually experience a five-phase curve:
Technology explosion: it's the crazy idea, the birth of something that can revolutionize a market, or people's lives. During this phase it is useless to open the wallet: you cannot buy anything yet.
The peak of expectations: following the wave of the first publicity given to the idea, some interested individuals or companies begin to evaluate the opportunity of these technologies. This is usually where you can tell if something works or not.
Ditch of disappointments: it is the quagmire in which a technology ends up that many companies try to make profitable without succeeding: the public perception becomes a little negative. It may still happen that someone works a miracle, but we shouldn't hope too much.
Spreading Hill: after the hitches of the 1st generation of products, the new improved releases of the 2nd and 3rd generation of these technologies give rise to cautious optimism.
Productivity plain: With better features and greater efficiency, the innovation finally becomes mainstream and people start adopting it permanently.
put it with a graph:
Find a number of current or recent technologies on this curve, to see more or less at what stage they are at: perhaps we have been a little optimistic (wireless energy may need many more years for adoption) but things like Internet TV, the Cloud, Tablets... well... they are really 'next'. Take a look too and at least let us know what you think. (and click on the image to enlarge it, of course):
