Our industry has made a huge mistake and will almost certainly have to suffer some for it. Slowing PC product upgrades. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the corporate impact of the stalled home PC market. And in spite of Microsoft's announcement of strong Windows 95 and Office 97 sales, it remains unlikely that U.S. companies will continue to upgrade their desktops at the same pace as in recent years. World Wide Web transition effects.
Recessions are natural in the early years of a major technology shift.
The returns on new investments in Web sites, electronic commerce and intranets will take time. Until then, both those initiatives as well as existing legacy systems must be maintained. This unavoidable parallelism results in inefficiencies that can weigh down overall productivity. For five straight years, IT spending in the U.S. has grown by double digits. History shows clearly that economies don't grow in straight lines.