Ballmer sees IT-industry conquering economic slump

COPENHAGEN: Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, said on Friday he

did not expect the current macroeconomic downturn to have an impact on the

technology sector's long-term development.

"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 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 US 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.