OVUM. David Bradshaw
Comment:
This is a very small net increase in jobs, just 0.2% of the 1.15m people with jobs in the Valley. However, coming after four years of job declines following the "tech bust", and the shifting of much of the hard graft of software development to low-wage economies, it looks to be a very good sign for the future.
The Valley remains the beating heart of the worldwide software industry, and the survey confirms what any of us who got to visit the Valley last year saw for ourselves – things are moving once again. Highway 101, the road that runs like an artery through the Valley, is busy once more – indeed it is once more congested at busy times (hmmm, maybe that’s not such a good analogy!), reacquiring its reputation as a "parking lot" in the morning rush-hour.
This isn’t exclusively about US software companies – many European software companies have development centres in the Valley. However, the US companies dominate the Valley, as they dominate the worldwide software industry.
A large number of US software vendors will be reporting their 2005 annual results over the next two or three weeks, and the majority of others will report their calendar Q4, although it won’t be a full fiscal year. This increases our expectation of good news from most of them.
