As the U.S. economy has slumped, pundits have been sitting around waiting for the IT hardware industry to go tits up. However, for some strange reason it hasn't; and Tom Smith, who follows computer hardware stocks for Standard & Poor's Equity Research, thinks that this time there is something strong about the connection people have to their laptops.

The biggest clue came when HP announced unit shipments of PCs rose 20 percent from a year ago. This is unheard of in terms of a 'luxury' industry during a time of recession.  Punters seem to be buying new laptops with more power, memory and battery life to manage even more tasks, Smith said.

Some of the improvement has also come from faster growth in developing countries is helping offset weakness in U.S. sales so it is not all booming in the U.S. He said it was unlikely that if PC sales had not fallen by now, they were unlikely to do so in this economic slowdown.

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