Microsoft Exchange is an application that centrally stores e-mails and contact lists and lets users retrieve them from anywhere in the world. It also comes with a useful array of collaboration tools including shared calendars and public folders. Chipmakers say the worst may be over, while computer companies say foreign markets for computer systems are going soft. The question is whether signs of a recovery are just wishful thinking or the real thing. There is no clear consensus from industry leaders or from Wall Street.
Many analysts look at a few key issues.
Those include improved, lower inventory levels for computer and chip makers and whether any events on the horizon will stimulate demand. Some also divide the world into the United States and the rest, arguing that the globe's leading economy stumbled first and should show the first signs of recovery. Intel's Bryant said his company is at a new lower level, not that markets were improving. And Intel would increase its own inventories because business is usually better in the second half of the year, he said. But computer makers painted a troubling picture of world markets.