Trend-setter Apple Computer shook up the tech world as it unveiled its first Intel-powered iMac computers and reported sizzling growth in sales of its iPod music players. Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs told the Macworld Expo in San Francisco the company sold a record 14 million iPod music players in the fourth quarter, a leap from 4.5 million in the same period of 2004.
And after weeks of frantic speculation over what the firm's next big thing would be, Jobs unveiled Apple's first desktop computers sporting Intel's twin processors months earlier than expected and announced record iPod sales at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
That, coupled with Jobs' revelation that Apple, famed for its sleek and trendy technology, had posted higher-than-expected revenue of 5.7 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2005 sent its shares surging by 6.8 percent or 4.32 to close at 80.68.
With his signature theatrical drama, Jobs introduced a new iMac desktop powered by the new Intel Core Duo processor, itself unveiled last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
"This ushers in a new generation of iMacs," Jobs told the audience. "We started a partnership less than a year ago to make this happen -- it's been incredible how our engineers have bonded and how well this has gone," he said.
Effective immediately, all iMacs will use the Intel chips and a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop sporting the processors will go on sale in February.
Apple's entire product line will be fitted with the Intel chip by the end of the end of 2006, Jobs said.
"The iMac has already been praised as 'the gold standard of desktop PCs,' so we hope customers really love the new iMac, which is up to twice as fast," he said..
Jobs was joined on stage by Intel chief executive Paul Otellini, who appeared amid a cloud of smoke wearing a white hazmat suit and symbolically delivered the chip to Jobs.
"Steve I wanted to report that Intel's ready," Otellini said. "Well I can report to you that Apple's ready too," Jobs replied.
With the Intel chip, the new iMac performs two to three times faster than its predecessor, which used PowerPC chips, Jobs said, while the MacBook Pro is four to five times faster than Apple's most powerful notebook, the PowerBook G4.
The Intel-powered computers, unveiled months ahead of their scheduled June debut, marks a major departure for Apple which for years lambasted Intel's chips, which are used in most personal computers.
But, increasingly frustrated with the inability of its longtime chip supplier IBM Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. to design smaller, more powerful chips, the company turned to Intel.
The huge iPod sales announced by Jobs included eight million of the new video iPods launched October 12. The number of iPods sold far exceeded the 1.25 million Macintosh computers sold in the same quarter.
Jobs said Apple had revenue of 5.7 billion dollars for the quarter ended in December, higher than the 5.04 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
With the market-leading iPod, Jobs has transformed Apple from a niche maker of PC's into the dominant seller of portable media devices and a pioneer in providing digital content over the Internet.
Strong iPod demand also is bringing more consumers into Apple's retail stores, boosting PC sales. In addition, the company has sold over 850 million songs through its popular iTunes service, according to Jobs, giving Apple an 83 percent share of the market for legal music downloads in December.
Among other products announced by Jobs, Apple unveiled a remote control for use with its latest iPod models, and the tiny iPod Nano, which adds an FM radio receiver. The company also revealed new and updated software.
