In this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss the flailing economy. The CFOs explaining the financial results on tech company earnings calls echoed the sentiments and uncertainty of every other company and industry. As Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell stated:
We're not economic forecasters, and there is a high degree of uncertainty in outlook based on the state of the economy. As a result we've adjusted our guidance approach as follows. At the top end we're assuming a mild recession, and a relatively modest growth rate for all IT-based products. While at the bottom end we're assuming a deeper recession in the economy and end-season lower growth for IT.
Even Apple's Steve Jobs had something to say about the economy: "Your next-door neighbor can likely predict what is going to happen as accurately as we can."
We also preview what's coming next week at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles next week.