Intel's Results Give Hope to Industry

The darkest time in the personal computer industry's history may have ended. In the last few months, hardware makers like Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have suffered as one-fifth to one-quarter of their computer sales vanished. For the first time ever, Microsoft, the world's largest PC software company, experienced a drop in sales of its Windows software and carried out large-scale layoffs. As a result, analysts predicted that computer sales would decline at a rate four times greater than during the dot-com bust, the previous low-water mark. But now there are signs that companies tied to the PC industry may stop setting unwelcome records. On Tuesday, Intel reported second-quarter sales of $8 billion for the quarter ended June 30. While that was a far cry from the $9.5 billion it posted in the same period last year, it beat analysts' expectations by $700 million.