Bothered by Big Blue

In other words, a last-minute rush for IT spending is welcome, even normal. But an eleventh-hour scrimping could spell trouble not just for IBM -- but for any company relying on software spending. Best case scenario: It's simply a randomly aberrational slowdown for IBM during its normally steady IT-spending-driven growth.

But if it were truly an aberration, would Loughridge have said the following:

"Today, I will start the discussion with our geographic results. I will focus the country-specific comments on the results at constant currency. The Americas revenue grew 1%. We had strong growth in Latin America, and Canada also grew, but the United States growth slowed and revenue was flat versus last year."

The U.S. business almost sounds like an afterthought. If the heart of its business were doing better, wouldn't he have said something like, "the America's revenue growth was slow, but we don't foresee further slowdown." He didn't, and that could presage further slowdown all around.

If Loughridge didn't misspeak, it's scary for many companies. IBM is not just a company that has overcome -- time and again -- the restrictions that mature growth can impose on a company. It's become, by virtue of its central role in the software and services world, a proxy for IT spending.

And, reading its earnings call closely, it's a disturbing thumbs-down in the middle of a bull rush: If companies are spending less on their information technology, which is more efficient and productive today than it was during the boom years, what else are they cutting back on?

In that case, I'll turn it over to the prescient Jackie Wilson, who also said:

"One day you laugh, the next day you cry,
And it's all a part of love."