Interesting two part piece by Tekrati, The State of Analyst Weblogs, Part 1, investigating how the various analyst firms are adopting blogs in their business models:

The high tech industry analysts have been slow to adopt blogs. That's about to change. In this two-part special report, Tekrati takes the pulse of the industry analyst bloggers. The report supplements the launch of our newest online resource, a directory of industry analyst blogs. At first glance, the slow spread of analyst blogs seems illogical. We expect the analysts to embrace new technologies. We expect the analysts to embrace tools that can increase their visibility and effectiveness as thought leaders. Where the two intersect -- new technologies and new communications channels -- we expect to find analyst nirvana. So, why the slow uptake?

Of course they will move slowly: they have built their world around a broadcast, pay-for-access model of analysis, and switching to an unmediated form of dialogue with their potential and actual clients will be very difficult. I predict that upstart companies -- like Corante -- will take the highground in areas that analyst firms don't have a dominant foothold.