Intel CEO Paul Otellini says that while computer sales were off by 55% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same time period in 2008, the worst of the market decline is over, and Intel is looking for decreased chip inventory to be a major factor in second quarter new computer sales.

Otellini told shareholders in the company’s quarterly earnings announcement that he believes that the company has seen the bottom of the sales decline, and expects to see modest growth in new PC sales in the second quarter. Consumers shouldn’t look for a fast recovery, however. Demand for the company’s products seems to be recovering in the US and China, but is still off in Europe, Japan and other areas around the world. The company reported slightly higher-than-expected earnings for the first quarter.

Otellini said that the company was not so confident in its recovery prediction that it was willing to provide an earnings estimate for the second quarter, but did indicate that the company was anticipating essentially flat revenues for the current quarter.

Is Now The Time To Buy

For consumers, is now a good time to buy a computer? Regardless of what platform you’re using, or what type of computer you’re looking for, now is a really good time to consider the purchase of a new computer. Dell and HP both have a number of laptops for sale under $1,000. Dell also has the Studio Hybrid desktop model available, bundled with a monitor, keyboard and mouse for $500-$850, depending upon the bundle options you choose.

Several manufacturers, including Dell and HP, are offering “mini” notebook computers for a few hundred dollars. For most users who are accustomed to a larger keyboard and display space, the mini is probably a little too compact to be comfortable. Nonetheless, a mini notebook is a relatively good option for truly portable computing needs. Most minis feature a flash drive and a LED display, which makes the profile a little more rugged than notebooks that rely on traditional hard disks for storage. Another advantage of the flash drive is that it takes up less battery power, meaning that the mini’s standby and runtimes are better.

The HP and Dell minis run on the Intel Atom processor and come with Linux and Windows XP operating system options. The designs support as much as 4 GB of memory as well. The 1.33GHz and 2.0GHz processors are certainly slower than what you would find on a desktop computer, but are favorably comparable to what’s being used in higher-end laptop models.

Photo Credit: N1NJ4, via Flickr