Networking equipment giant Cisco has expressed concerns that the IT market’s recovery may be slowing down, with CEO John Chambers claiming he is seeing “mixed signals” on the future direction of the industry.

"We are seeing a large number of mixed signals in both the market and from our customer’s expectations," said CEO John Chambers, following the announcement of the company’s most recent financial figures. "We think the words ‘unusual’ and ‘uncertainty’ are an accurate description of what is occurring,"

The company saw revenues rise 27% to $10.8 billion in the three months to 31 July 2010, a smaller rise than investment analysts had expected. Chambers subsequently gave a tentative outlook on the depth and extent of the IT industry’s recovery. "While the situation is improving, we continue to see challenging procurement of components this quarter," he said.

As the graph belows shows, Cisco has been a reasonably consistent performer in terms of both revenue and net income, even at the most harrowing depths of recession in summer 2008.