Nobody expects a press release to offer objective information--precisely the point is to present news in the most favorable possible light. But it's time to stop the thinly disguised advertisements in purported analyst testimonials about the relevance and value of new technology. What's more, these quotes mark a missed opportunity to establish credibility with more general, toned-down statements.

Today, AT&T Wireless announced enhancements to its mMode wireless Internet service. This press release features a quote from a Yankee Group analyst that reads like it was drafted by the AT&T Wireless PR department.

Here's a dirty little secret of analyst quotes: it probably is.

The decline of the technology sector has made the technology analyst landscape more competitive, too. The Yankee Group, Gartner Group, Jupiter and other players are just as hungry for publicity as the companies they cover. If I had to take a guess, Yankee Group was just as excited to be in this press release as AT&T Wireless was to issue it.

But there's a way for everyone to gain exposure and remain credible at the same time. These kinds of press releases should include general information about trends, not specific company endorsements. For a press release about wireless phone Internet applications, information from a study about the increasing popularity of this technology would have been more persuasive and more believable. It's a golden opportunity for PR departments to accomplish more by saying less.