Gartner:XMPP future standard for real time communication

This is a press release with no evidence cited about XMPP's takeover. They do say there is some evidence in two linked documents, but both are behind pay walls. Where's the meat?

Gartner is pay to play research.

Is there a non-xml "flavor" of xmpp? Doesn't seem like an xml protocol is the wave of the future based on current trends.

XMPP is known for real time but poor to scale. I have my doubts on this, but could somebody suggest any alternatives?