The bounceback can't come soon enough so far as I am concerned. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Long may it bounce! And far.

"Microsoft sets to change the world" sounds grand but the world seems to be stuck with only one choice, namely, Windows. Is it right for the end-users to pay for successive operating systems which have been the pin-cushions for hackers, who share B.Gate's vision to change the world? Mr Gate should change the backdoor loopholes in his products first before changing the world.

///what are some of the other characteristics of the "post-PC" world, aside from the ascendancy of Linux - anyone?///

How about the ascendancy of Skype - that's a TEXTBOOK example of an application that "Beyond the PC" now that the Web-based calling service connects with your mobile phone.

what are some of the other characteristics of the "post-PC" world, aside from the ascendancy of Linux - anyone?

Both RIM and Google doubled their stock price in '04 that's true, but what about the flat performance of IBM (began at 90, ended at 95) and/or HP (begun at 25, ended at 21)...will they be "bouncing back" too or are they now history?

Technology never went away, even if there was a reduction in investment and a slowdown in markets. The reason is very simple: civilization is now so deep into technological dependency that it is quite impossible for the first world to function without its modern accoutrements. That makes any apparent breaks or slowdowns in the march of technology merely temporary and largely illusory anyway --- engineers and scientists continue doing their thing regardless of investor indifference. In adverse economic conditions, their efforts come to life in products later rather than sooner, that's all.

Technological progress has something equivalent to inertia, in that it resists any attempt to stop or even slow it down. In part this is because insight and innovation occurs more in the head than in the lab, and budget cutbacks never stopped anyone thinking. On top of that, science and technology is subject to positive feedback and exponential growth not just in scale but in number of dimensions as well, so it's no surprise that technology sees almost no slowdown regardless of the lack of helpful but non-critical investment.

It looks like every phone has or will have email built in. Which leaves RIM as a cell phone maker.

GOOG is fueled by hype, and a GMail system that is STILL in beta. Institutional investors would rarely put GOOG as part of their list of stocks, even though GOOG's initial share price is indeed targetting thouse. The iPod is not exactly the same because it's more of a portable music device such as a walkman or discman. The Blackberry is more an ugly cell phone but with hormone-enhanced SMS. Returning of technology? THAT should be judged by technology spending at the corporate level, not a couple consumer gadgets plus a overhyped stock.

I'm at the #1 company that provides precision A/C units for mainframes. In the mid 90's we made about 150 deluxe units a week. Sales climbed with the bubble over a period of years. We were making 550 units per week by the time the bubble burst. Sales dropped to a tenth of that when the bubble burst. The 'new' people on the shop floor have now been there for 7 years. We are now staffed for 150 again and waiting for the bounceback.

Rather than "must have gadgets", how about gaugeing a technology recovery by numbers of unemployed/underemployed technology workers?

Want to prove a "bounceback"? Then show us the jobs - new, US-based jobs please. THEN you'll have your bounceback.

When the tech industry is starting to offer better products for more reasonable prices, I call that a bounceback.

By that standard, it's hard to say. The video card industry is looking really good right now, but so far there hasn't been all that much competition to IPod, so that just seems like an entrenchment of a single popular product (and experience suggests this leads to stagnation more than innovation). Plus, Google's stock doubling doesn't really seem to have all that much impact upon technology so much as the world of business. We get the benefits of their technology in their services, sure, but it's not like google is all of a sudden THAT much better than it's been for the past few years.

Frankly, when it comes to technology, I'd say that software is having the resurgence, not hardware. Open Source solutions are as strong and available as ever, meaning that Microsoft has had to pick up the pace in terms of the innovations it provides (or claims to, anyhow). And how spoiled are we that we can look at a game like Doom3 and be bored?

If there is such a bouncback where are the jobs.

People want to pay a graduate wage to get a person with a good amount of experiance.

Some jobs demand a MCSE for things that are not even related to the qualification.

Others are just plain absurd. eg about 1.5 years ago I saw an add asking for CCNA, MCSE and 5+ years commercial experiance with .NET.

(The salary was £17-22k per year and .NET hadn't even existed for 5 Years).

If there is a revolution howabout some jobs.. go on please ;)

Not yet, although I hope they do soon. I'm sick of all the people with self-important attitudes and a blackberry on which they type all-important memos to god-knows-who.

Didn't RIM just lose their lawsuit and are now prevented from selling any more Blackberry products in the U.S.?