The U.S. doesn't innovate and CIOs risk becoming extinct. That was the message delivered by Gartner analyst Steve Prentice at the recent Gartner Symposium/IT expo. Prentice said that in the IT industry today, mediocrity is now the norm. The problem, he said, is a lack of vision. Other points emphasized at the symposium included the observation that CEOs will be looking for innovation, and if CIOs don't deliver, CEOs will bypass them. Analysts also noted that consolidation in the hardware and software markets is bad for users and is doing little for innovation, that most companies haven't planned ahead for the consumerization of technology, that services models will dominate, that green IT matters, that IT departments will be defined by efficiency and rated by services, that legacy systems are still the norm, and that India is setting the pace in IT innovation.

Read more about the results of the Gartner symposium:
- read the blog at ZDNet