The most important piece of information to come out of Intel Corp.’s (NASDAQ: INTC) quarterly earnings release was the comment by CEO Brian Krzanich that “We had a solid fourth quarter with signs of stabilization in the PC segment and financial growth from a year ago.” Since PC sales have been cannibalized for three years by tablets and smartphones, the statement may be the first sign that the traditional computer product may not be swamped by new products forever.

Intel’s numbers for the final quarter of its fiscal year were little more than stable. Revenue rose 3% to $13.8 billion. Net income was up 6% to $2.6 billion. It is no longer the growth engine it started as at the dawn of the PC age in the 1980s. However, anxiety that its reliance on PCs would eventually make it a second-tier tech company have not happened. The market has taken some measure of Intel’s new stability. Its shares were up barely 5% over the past two years, against an increase of 40% in the S&P 500. However, over the past half year, Intel’s price improvement has matched that of the index.

What continues to puzzle outsiders is whether Intel can have any future success, even if the PC sector does not continue to implode. The huge chip company still has not made much progress in the tablet and smartphone markets. It does have allies in the smartphone market, but they are led by second-tier manufacturers Acer, Lenovo and the Motorola division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Intel’s Atom processor has had some success with tablet manufacturers, but not enough to satisfy investors who believe the chips came to market too late and will not get impressive adoption.

For the time being, all Intel can say is that things are not getting worse in its primary market. It is telling that its CEO mentioned this ahead of anything else. It speaks to the fact that Intel has nothing more exciting to say about its future.

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