With recent layoffs and disappointing earnings, some industry analysts have pointed to a slowdown in the tech sector. We’re not entering dotcom crash territory just yet, but things are cooling off.

Last week, Cisco announced that it was slashing 4,000 jobs from its workforce. Earlier this summer, IBM announced cuts of 3,000 jobs. In June, Zynga laid off 18 percent of its workforce. PC sales and tablet sales are down everywhere. Longtime stalwarts like BlackBerry, Nokia, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard have also struggled lately.

As the Los Angeles Times observed:

... in recent months, tech earnings have plummeted as tech companies have reported slower growth or declines. Venture capital has fallen almost 7 percent this year. Tech mergers and acquisitions have tumbled. And tech stocks have lagged the broader stock market this year. As of early August, the S&P 500 was up 19.68 percent, but tech stocks in the index were up only 11.1 percent, one of the lowest-performing categories.

So what's going on? Is it the natural Hayekian boom-and-bust cycle? Have crazy tech growth and profits just become the new normal? Is it the global economic recession? Have we all just gotten tired of the hot new app or tablet? There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer.

"What I've seen is that a lot of the tech heavyweights are having challenges," Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told the Times. "There's a fundamental shift in the marketplace that many people are grappling with. What we're seeing is a transitional period."

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