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By Will Sturgeon, 30 October 2003 17:25

NEWS The tech recovery is under way according to the findings of a poll run among silicon.com readers.

Almost half the readers taking part in the survey said they believe the recovery has begun while only 26.1 per cent said talk of a recovery is misplaced.

Sat on the fence are 21.1 per cent of silicon.com readers who are undecided about the upturn.

Those undecided have doubtless heard the positive noises coming out of many tech firms, but are perhaps loathe to allow themselves think the long-awaited recovery could at last be upon us, for fear of disappointment - the classic "don't get your hopes up" mentality.

However, for those convinced the recovery is under way there is no shortage of signs to back-up their confident assertion - most notably a raft of positive results announcements in the past months.

Opinions are also divided across the industry.

Andy Mulholland, global CTO of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, told silicon.com: "It would be wrong to start running around thinking the recovery is happening. There are clear areas where we are seeing growth, such as mobile and people are spending again with a sense of 'we can't keep putting this off forever', but I think it is still very much a case of being cautiously optimistic."

"I am steady-as-she-goes man," he added.

Other industry figures are also not yet ready to call the recovery. Duncan Black, director of corporate solutions strategy, at Cable & Wireless, said: "I would say we’re in a period of stability. Recovery might be stretching it too far. There is a clearer playing field, with not everyone trying to do all things in all parts of the world.

Bert Whyte, CEO of Netcom, said: "We’ve hit the bottom. There’s more activity now but I wouldn’t say the recovery is really happening yet."

The silicon.poll is a feature of the new site. From now on silicon.com will be running polls across the site - look on the right hand side of the front page, about half way down and you'll find our current one, all about patch management.