IDG News Service — Earnings season continued this week with a wave of mostly better-than-expected quarterly financial reports from IT vendors, but a close look at revenue figures shows the industry has a way to go before hitting the type of year-over-year sales gains that were common before the recession.

Kicking off the week, Apple reported a strong quarter, but results were mixed for several other vendors. Thursday was one of the biggest days for earnings announcements this quarter, with EMC, Xerox, Amazon and eBay reporting. Yahoo and Texas Instruments reported earnings earlier in the week.

AT&T reported third-quarter earnings of US$3.2 billion, down from $3.23 billion a year earlier. Revenue dropped 1.6 percent to $30.7 billion. In the fixed-line business, revenue fell 7.1 percent and profit fell 30 percent. However, the good news -- especially for Apple watchers -- was that, buoyed by iPhone sales, revenue for AT&T's wireless business rose 8.2 percent and profit jumped 41 percent.

Storage technology maker EMC -- which also owns a majority share of VMware -- said it generated a profit of $298.2 million, down from $393.4 million a year earlier. Revenue declined 5.3 percent to $3.52 billion.

On a conference call, however, officials were upbeat about the economic climate.

"Excellent free cash-flow generation [demonstrated] the strength of our financial model and what looks to be an increasing stability in IT spending," said David Goulden, EMC's chief financial officer.

Xerox officials were not so sanguine. "Just as we are closely managing costs, our customers are doing the same and we have not seen a meaningful shift towards increased spending on technology," said CEO Ursula Burns in a statement. "For many of our business clients -- small to large -- there remains a hesitancy to invest until more economic factors show signs of steady improvement," she said.

Xerox reported a profit of $123 million, down from $258 million a year earlier, while revenue was $3.68 billion, compared to $4.37 billion last year.

In a good sign for e-commerce, Amazon reported a quarterly net sales increase of 28 percent, to $5.45 billion. Net income increased 68 percent to $199 million. The company said sales of the Kindle e-reader were strong.

EBay broke a series of three straight quarterly declines in sales, reporting

that third-quarter revenue rose 5.7 percent to $2.24 billion. The e-commerce company's earnings, however, declined 29 percent to $349.7 million.

On Tuesday, Yahoo said quarterly revenue was $1.58 billion, down 12 percent from the same period last year, though net income was up by 244 percent to $186 million. The sharp income increase was due to, among other things, savings from slower-than-expected hiring and a drop in broadband costs.

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