Apple Inc.'s iPads and iPhones are flying off store shelves. Consumers are snapping up laptops. Some companies are opening the spigot on long-delayed upgrades to computersystems.

Despite renewed worries about the global economy, the technology industry is riding a recovery that underscores the evolution of the Internet.

More proof of the industry's improved health is likely to arrive this week in quarterly financial results. Chip giant Intel Corp. is expected to get the ball rolling Tuesday with its fifth- straight upbeat earnings report. Solid growth is expected from other tech bellwethers, including Google Inc. on Thursday and Apple on July 20.

So far, the upswing doesn't begin to match the tech booms of the late 1990s and the middle years of this decade. And the stock prices of many technology companies have been under pressure since the spring, reflecting fears that the recovery's momentum can't continue.

But anecdotal evidence points to continued consumer demand for smartphones, laptop computers, software and other products, while some businesses are beginning to step up spending on servers, storagesystems and networking equipment.

Among factors behind the growth:

• The market for personal computers keeps defying predictions of an inevitable slowdown. PC sales were expected to fall in 2009 due to the recession, but market researcher Gartner Inc. said shipments wound up rising 4.7%. The company projects a 20.3% jump in global unit shipments this year, aided by a nearly 29% increase in the home computer market.

• Apple said it sold more than 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the gadget's first five days on the market, making it the most successful product launch in the company's history, according to CEO Steve Jobs -- despite concerns about the phone's cellular reception. Apple also said it sold more than three million of its iPad devices in less than three months.

• Strong demand is causing rising prices and shortages for key tech components. Lead times for delivery of some widely used semiconductors such as capacitors, rectifiers and transistors have stretched to 18 to 20 weeks in some cases, up from 10 to 12 weeks normally, said iSuppli, another market-research firm.

• Makers of chip-manufacturing equipment should enjoy a 113.2% increase in capital spending in 2010 after a prolonged slump, Gartner predicts.

• Initial stock offerings and acquisitions of tech companies have rebounded, improving confidence among investors to help fund new companies. Investments by U.S. venture capitalists rose 12% in the first quarter, compared with a 29% plunge for all of 2009.

'There's strong, durable, authentic momentum,' said Rich Wong, a partner at Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture-capital firm.

Such momentum can shift quickly, as it did in the fall of 2008, when many consumers and companies dramatically cut tech spending. Earlier this month, Gartner Inc. trimmed its world-wide spending forecast for all information-technology spending to 3.9% in 2010 -- down from a previousforecast of 5.3% growth -- due to the rocky economic situation in Europe.

But there is a countervailing force against the inevitable cycles in the industry: the growing importance of the Internet.

Consumers in some countries continue to go on the Web for the first time, while those in other regions increase their time online as video and other Web-delivered services become ever more important to employment, entertainment and education.

The trend is helping bolster companies like Cisco Systems Inc., which sells hardware for moving Internet data. Cisco in May said revenue climbed 27% in its third fiscal quarter, and it is betting heavily on technology that enables lifelike videoconferences.

As laptops become the dominant way to go online, home computer usage has changed fundamentally, Intel executives say. Where many homes once had one or at most two desktop computers, laptops have become as personal to many people as cellphones; everyone in a household increasingly wants his or her own, further boosting sales.

'We are far away from saturation,' said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel's PC client group, during an analyst meeting in May.

Meantime, many companies are making plans to upgrade to Microsoft Corp.'s new operating system, Windows 7, which is further driving hardware spending.

Spending by businesses 'has improved dramatically' from a year ago, said Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft's server and tools business.

Don Clark / Pui-Wing Tam

• opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
• computer [kəm´pju:tə] n.计算机；电子计算器 (初中英语单词)
• economy [i´kɔnəmi] n.经济；机制；组织 (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• pressure [´preʃə] n.压榨 vt.对...施压力 (初中英语单词)
• beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
• despite [di´spait] prep.尽管 (初中英语单词)
• equipment [i´kwipmənt] n.装备，设备 (初中英语单词)
• venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
• plunge [plʌndʒ] v.插进 n.投入；冲击 (初中英语单词)
• partner [´pɑ:tnə] n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词)
• valley [´væli] n.谷；河谷；流域 (初中英语单词)
• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• employment [im´plɔimənt] n.工作；职业；雇用 (初中英语单词)
• entertainment [,entə´teinmənt] n.招(款)待；联欢会 (初中英语单词)
• everyone [´evriwʌn] pron.=everybody 每人 (初中英语单词)
• manager [´mænidʒə] n.经理；管理人；干事 (初中英语单词)
• system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
• shelves [ʃelvz] shelf的复数 (高中英语单词)
• recovery [ri´kʌvəri] n.重获；获得；恢复 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
• storage [´stɔ:ridʒ] n.贮存；存储器 (高中英语单词)
• inevitable [i´nevitəbəl] a.不可避免的 (高中英语单词)
• launch [lɔ:ntʃ] vt.发动 n.发射；汽艇 (高中英语单词)
• reception [ri´sepʃən] n.接待；欢迎；招待会 (高中英语单词)
• delivery [di´livəri] n.送交；分娩；交货 (高中英语单词)
• initial [i´niʃəl] a.最初的 n.首字母 (高中英语单词)
• revenue [´revinju:] n.税收；收入 (高中英语单词)
• client [´klaiənt] n.委托人；顾客 (高中英语单词)
• evolution [,i:və´lu:ʃən] n.进化；发展；发育 (英语四级单词)
• durable [´djuərəbl] a.耐久的，耐用的 (英语四级单词)
• authentic [ɔ:´θentik] a.真实的；可靠的 (英语四级单词)
• hardware [´hɑ:dweə] n.五金器皿 (英语四级单词)
• dominant [´dɔminənt] a.统治的；占优势的 (英语四级单词)
• increasingly [in´kri:siŋli] ad.日益，愈加 (英语四级单词)
• earnings [´ə:niŋz] n.收益；报酬；获得 (英语六级单词)
• normally [´nɔ:məli] ad.正常情况下；通常 (英语六级单词)
• forecast [´fɔ:kɑ:st] vt.&n.预测；预报 (英语六级单词)
• fiscal [´fiskəl] a.财政的 (英语六级单词)