Three months after Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced that the PC market had reached bottom, the company’s latest financials, which handily beat expectations, seem to have proven him right. “The worst is now behind us,” he said. And the tech economy is showing signs of muted recovery.

The question is: Is that recovery sustainable?

The answer, according to Otellini, is yes. “The second quarter was clearly better than we expected,” he told analysts on a conference call. “Customers signaled increased confidence in their ordering patterns.” After months of global recession, Otellini noted that the company’s second-quarter results “reflect improving conditions” in the PC market.

“Intel is seeing a firming up in demand,” he added. “It’s encouraging news for the industry.”

Indeed. Intel is a bellwether for the tech sector; as goes Intel, so goes the industry. So, if Intel says demand is beginning to return to normal seasonal patterns, then the industry may truly be stabilizing. That said, there’s still quite a bit of economic volatility–enough to suggest that it might be wise not to read too much into Intel’s performance.

Said analysts at JP Morgan: “Although the Intel quarter was clearly spectacular on all fronts, we continue to believe the upside was driven by inventory replenishment as we have not seen any evidence of increasing PC demand.”

Shares of Intel (INTC) are trading up 6.77 percent at $17.97 this morning.

However…

Looking ahead, Salesforce (CRM) said its current quarter would miss analysts’ estimates, and it reduced its full-year revenue outlook, saying sales will fall between $1.25 billion and $1.27 billion. The Street, which had been looking for $1.3 billion, was not at all happy with that and promptly sent the company’s shares down 7.6 percent.

And at this point, the company clearly has to do something. Its last financials were grotesque and the ones to come promise to be little different. The “transformation” Sony began four years ago is still a work in progress, arguably one that’s been stalled for some time now. Once an electronics powerhouse, Sony (SNE) is now a laggard in many of the markets it once dominated: videogame consoles, digital music players and TVs. “The prices of digital home appliances have been declining by 15% to 20% every year lately,” said Sony spokesperson Mami Imada. “Unless we cut costs we cannot hope to survive the price competition.”

All in all, a very impressive showing. Certainly, investors were agog over RIM’s financials. Shares in the company spiked on the news, rising more that 20 percent to $59.37 in after-hours trading. “This is wildly better than people were looking for,” said Duncan Stewart, analyst at DSAM Consulting in Toronto. “Getting improvement in both margin and growth at the same is a rare thing.”

We are preconfigured for the downturn.”

– Sun CEO Jon Schwartz, Oct. 13, 2008

The econalypse is weighing heavy on Sun Microsystems. Its business sullied by the financial crisis, the company warned of a much larger-than-expected quarterly loss on lower revenue after market close Monday afternoon. Sun (JAVA) said it expects to post revenues of $2.95 billion to $3.05 billion when it reports full financials on Oct. 30. Analysts had been looking for $3.14 billion and a loss of $0.01.

Sun’s ugly news just seems to be getting uglier. “The company continues to miss its targets,” said Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher. “There’s a lack of confidence in management, given continued shortfalls. … They are just not well-positioned … [Sun] has an uncertain future.”