Whisper it but the tech economy is blooming

The jury might still be out on the fate of the British macro economy but the signs regarding the technology economy are turning green at a rapid clip.

Look for example at some recent financial quarters: IBM’s new consulting deals, Microsoft’s progress and Apple’s soaring into space (the last pair bith record quarters). Or consider the recent mini bounce-back in mergers and acquisitions with Google, Salesforce.com, Visa and others investing in hot technologies. Best of all, look at the sudden return to action from the MIA (and presumed dead) IPO market where technology is top dog again. 

Does this mean that big business is upping spending speculatively once again? Not necessarily, although it’s a natural reflex that there should be some relaxation of purses after the collier’s grip that has been applied for so long and, as a bellwether, Windows 7 would appear to be gathering momentum in large-ish accounts.

It may be quite prosaic: enterprise giants are getting better at managing resources and firms are swapping out creaking parts while companies like Apple can make huge sums if they build the best, most desirable mousetraps possible.

But the long trend is that IT stock value tends to follow business sentiment and the springtime (together with some encouraging indicators) might just be encouraging us all to spy green shoots in the economy and invest accordingly.