Ballmer: IT Industry Recovering From Slump

"Certainly business is not as good as a lot of people would like right now. But in a 10-year sense, I don't think it will make any difference," Ballmer said Friday at a business conference hosted by IBC Euroforum and Danish business daily Borsen.

Ballmer said the next major technological leap after the arrival of the Internet would be to integrate different systems, enabling information to travel freely between computers, phones and wrist watches.

This development would happen without the same amounts of money pouring into the technology sector as in 1999 and early 2000.

"There was a bubble of over-investment in telecoms and dot-com, and I don't think that bubble is going to be reinflated," Ballmer said.

Ballmer did not want to make any predictions on the development of the U.S. economy, but said people should not focus on the short-term difficulties.

"Economists are saying things are coming back, and when we have quarterly results that support it, you'll know we agree. But for now we stand by all our current revenue projections," he said.

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