Few sectors are as prone to misconceptions as technology. Consider the current consensus assumptions: consumers, crippled by debt, are shunning electronic goods; corporate demand, destroyed by the recession, will take years to recover; and tech companies, historically given to overbuilding capacity in recovery phases, will spoil the party just when it gets going.

There is much history from the past decade to support these views. But there is even stronger evidence to suggest the above assumptions are wrong.