A wide range of new products would spur continued growth in the use of technology, despite concerns about the plunge in tech stock prices, industry leaders said on Tuesday.
"People ask where do we go from here ... and say 'okay, is this finally the end of technology doing miracle things?'," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in an address to the World Economic Forum's Asia Pacific meeting in Melbourne. "My answer is ... absolutely not."
Gates said new applications would drive further growth. "If we can bring exciting new applications that make those knowledge workers more effective the continued benefits we have -- the PC, the software revolution, the Internet -- those will continue to grow very strongly," he said.
Microsoft's share price is among those that have fallen this year, nearly halving from its December 1999 high of US$119 15/16 to a 2000 year low of US$60 6/16 on May 27. The software giant's shares closed Monday's session at US$68 13/16, down 8/16.
Gates also said that despite initial scepticism about the benefits of new technology, the US economy had demonstrated the productivity gains that have come from technology.
One of the key regions expected to provide growth was Asia, as countries such as China and India increase their use of technology.
But business network management software group Novell chief executive Eric Schmidt cautioned that high tech groups could face difficulties pricing their products in Asian markets.
Pricing under pressure in Asia?
While markets in Asia, which account for about 20 percent of Novell's
revenue, were expected to grow rapidly for Internet technologies, pricing
for the information technology industry was likely to come under pressure,
he said.
He said this was partly because income per capita was lower in the emerging markets and because the US dollar was so strong.
"So far we've been able to hold pricing pretty well. But there's always an issue of going for (market) share," he told Reuters.
Ziggy Switkowski, chief executive of Australian telco giant Telstra, which recently entered into a pan Asian alliance with Hong Kong's Pacific CenturyCyberWorks, was more upbeat.
"Telecommunications and information technology is probably the liveliest and fastest growing industry in the world and Asia is the liveliest and fastest growing set of economies in the world," Switkowski told the meeting.
"Large and rapidly growing domestic markets will make this region a region of opportunity," he said.
Telstra formed the Pacific CenturyCyberWorks alliance, in which it will invest US$3 billion and assets, to try to break free of Australia, where its market share is being eroded, and to find growth opportunities.
However, the market is sceptical about the benefits that Telstra will reap from the PCCW deal, especially after Telstra said it would will dilute earnings for years, and its shares have plunged.
On Tuesday, they fell 3.5 cents to AU$6.18, not far from a recent 22 month low of AU$6.10, and 30.5 percent short of their 2000 high of AU$8.78.
