Jeffrey Mann1 April, 2012: After last year’s successful launch of “Real Quadrants,” Gartner has announced the next iteration in the development of its most popular branded deliverable. The Magic Quadrant’s two axes and four categories have proven insufficient to capture the complexities of IT markets in the second decade of the 21st century. Entire product categories become features of broader products at a dizzying rate. Disruptive innovators find ways to split existing markets in a new way by focusing on a different way of using or combining familiar capabilities. IT buyers are faced with a wide and constantly shifting range of offerings that could fit their needs, in many different ways.
Attempts to introduce nested quadrants or to add a third or fourth axis proved inadequate, as shown below.
The only figure that could adequately cope with the complexity of the current IT market landscape is a fractal, a figure that can represent deep levels of complexity without losing fidelity.
Unfortunately, Magic Fractals cannot be adequately represented on a two dimensional web page. However, this video shows a possible representation of a Magic Fractal, although the final version is likely to be different.
Category: humor Magic Quadrant Tags: April Fools, Magic Fractals, Magic Quadrant, Real Quadrants
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1 The best April 1 gags … or were they? | andybundy.com April 2, 2012 at 1:56 am
[...] ‘Magic Fractals’ had us going for a minute or two, as did this one about a sabre-toothed [...]
2 Gartner’s latest April Fool’s prank- the Hype Bicycle! | The IIAR Blog April 2, 2013 at 11:12 am
[...] every day, and is your vehicle for IT success. According to Gartner, “After last year’s Magic Fractals and the year before’s Real Quadrants, this new addition to Gartner’s branded research should [...]
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