Doomsday schmoomsday. The tech industry is faring pretty well in this ultra-grim economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gets battered, and tech gets bruised. Case in point: General Electric shares fell roughly 7 percent on Wednesday while Apple shares climbed nearly 6 percent.
And while there's no shortage of bad news to dwell on, this is as good of a time as any to point out the positive. There is good news out there -- you just gotta dig for it.
Here are some of our findings:
1. Storage. It's a snoozer of a business, but it still rocks. EMC delivered third-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates, despite the fact that some of its competitors appear to be sucking wind. Bottom line: Even in an economic downturn, storage is still in demand.
2. Oil is getting cheap(er). The New York Times' can argue all it wants that cheap oil is bad for us. We'd rather pay less than $4 for a gallon of gas.
3. VMware. Because virtualization is hot, even if nobody knows what exactly that means. VMware's earnings beat Wall Street estimates by a penny per share and the stock shot up 7 percent on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq tumbled nearly 5 percent.
4. San Francisco. The little City by the Bay has the strongest economy in the state, according to a new report. And undoubtedly the tech industry -- and venture capital -- is a key contributor.
5. Apple. People were supposed to stop buying pricey Apple products when the economy went to hell. But Apple sold the bejesus out of the iPhone last quarter, which helped drive sales up 27 percent.
Photo: Flickr/bfick
