

Is it a tech boom or a bubble? - abalog
http://gigaom.com/2011/07/17/is-it-really-a-tech-boom-or-a-bubble-infographic/

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dstein
The bubble is clearly in social networking marketing rather than actual
technology. The value that VC's are putting on unmonetizable audiences is
completely absurd.

However the story is different for legitmate tech companies. There is a
genuine boom occuring in the mobile/cloud technology space. It is a paradigm
shift on a scale probably 100 times larger than the shift to personal
computers.

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Turing_Machine
I agree with respect to mobile -- the depth of the potential customer base
there hasn't even begun to be plumbed. It's going to be very interesting once
smart phones (and app sales) become ubiquitous in less-developed countries.
That will probably require lowering the price even further, but hey, if you
can sell 100 million copies of a ten cent app...

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wccrawford
Bubble. Things are a little over-the-top right now. Demand for programmers is
outstripping the supply by quite a bit. (Not that I'm complaining... Right
now.) Things are over-valued.

However, I don't think the bubble is so big yet that bursting it would cause
devastation. Just a lot of pain and tears.

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pagekalisedown
If that's the case, then why haven't salaries increased proportionally?

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wccrawford
Actually, in my area, they have. The job postings lately are as much as 50%
higher than a few years ago, for basically the same job.

In fact, I left my last job because they weren't paying me what I felt I was
worth. I signed on with a new company for a huge raise, among other things.
The old company is now trying to hire 6 people at what I now make. And as far
as I know, they're failing to get them. I know my current company has failed
to find anyone at a slightly lower salary than mine.

Companies are extremely resistant to changes in salaries. It takes a pressing
need to get them to bump the salary up for a position. That's partly because
it throws their budget off, but also because that means their existing
employees are being underpaid, and they risk losing them as well, should they
find out... Unless they also bump their pay up, destroying the aforementioned
budget again.

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pagekalisedown
What area of the country are you in?

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jinushaun
Boom since the 1970s. Bubble since 2009. They don't have to be mutually
exclusive.

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thomas
Let's keep asking this same question and maybe someone will come up with a
good answer.

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zinssmeister
if we look at the sheer number of internet users and the over all demand for
web driven devices and solutions it's clearly not a bubble.

