TEXT OF STORY

Bill Radke: The price of personal computers is coming down,
and so are profits at Hewlett-Packard. The tech company reported after the bell yesterday
its quarterly profit was down 19 perecent from last year. Not good, but it was actually better than Wall Street was forecasting.

Meanwhile, technology executives are talking optimistically. In a new survey computer company CEOs predict their industry will recover before the rest of the economy. Marketplace’s John Dimsdale reports.

John Dimsdale: Auditor KPMG finds eight out of ten technology executives expect their business to power up next year. KPMG’s Gary Matuszak says companies delayed IT improvements during the slowdown.

GARY MATUSZAK: As companies start to get a little more predictability into their own businesses, they’re going to start to open up some of those projects again.

Executives say they’re also investing in new technologies that merge computing with TV. But are skittish consumers ready to start buying? San Francisco University business professor Jon Fisher doesn’t think so, until another big industry recovers first.

JON FISHER: I think consumers are literally going to have to see their home prices stabilize and recover, so that they get that fuel to actually have either mortgage equity withdrawals or borrowing potential to inject into the economy.

That means new gadgets will have to wait.

In Washington, I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.