ARmadgeddon thinks that the big firms like Gartner have a safe future, because they still provide perceived value to their clients. He may be right, but I have a small quibble, and it doesn't have to do with analyst firms specifically. It has to do with size and the slowness that accompanies it.

Back in the 80's, IBM's bloat nearly killed it. They recovered, and they are still very important in the industry. During the 90's, everyone thought that MS was too dominant - I think they are just entering the danger zone of too much size and not enough agility. They could survive like IBM has; they could also crash and burn like DEC did.

I don't think analyst firms are immune to this, and Gartner has certainly grown itself to a size where "slow and ponderous" could be a problem.