Jobs: New Intel-powered Macs are 'screamers'

Addressing a packed crowd of the Mac faithful, Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday served up the first Intel-based Macs, introducing a new high-end laptop and a revamped iMac.

The new machines both include Intel's Duo dual-core chip. The iMac will come in the same sizes and sell for the same prices as the current models, but the Intel chips make it two to three times faster, Jobs said. A new laptop computer, called the MacBook Pro, will be available in February, he said. (Watch News.com's video of Jobs unveiling the new Mac.)

In addition to the crop of new Macs, Jobs also announced a new version of the iLife suite that adds a new tool -- iWeb -- designed to make it easy to create Web sites with video, audio and blogs, and new features meant to simplify the sharing of photos over the Web and the creation of podcasts.

Jobs said Apple would transition to an all-Intel lineup of Macintosh computers by the end of 2006.

"We're a little ahead of schedule," he said, with Intel chief executive officer Paul Otellini joining him onstage dressed in a head-to-toe 'bunny suit', the protective suits that workers wear in chipmaking facilities. "These things are screamers." (Watch News.com's video of Otellini in the suit.)

The release of the new Macintosh computers comes just seven months after Jobs shocked the computer world with an announcement that Apple would move to Intel chips, after years of using the PowerPC hardware made by IBM and Motorola.

Jobs said last June that Apple would have computers ready to ship by June of this year. Beating that mark by almost half a year will help ease a transition some feared would result in several quarters of diminished sales, analysts said.

"The critical thing they delivered on is what people, including analysts, were expecting," said Charlie Wolf, a financial analyst with Needham & Company. "They have begun the Intel transition sooner rather than later."

Still, Jobs took pains to dispel any notion of a current slowdown in Apple sales. In an uncharacteristic announcement, he said the company had a record $5.7bn in revenue for the quarter that ended in December. Apple's retail stores alone accounted for $1bn in revenue, he said.

That included sales of 14 million iPods in the Christmas quarter, with more than 32 million of the music devices sold over the course of 2005. Those figures, at least as much as the new products, impressed analysts.

"They could have announced dog food and the stock would have been up five points," Wolf said.

The new iMac line includes a 17-inch, 1.83GHz version, selling for £929, and a 20-inch, 2.0GHz version for £1,229.

Out now, the MacBook Pro line of laptops includes a £1,429 model running at 1.67GHz and featuring a 15-inch screen. That version also comes with an 80GB hard drive and a new infrared sensor to use with the Apple Remote control device. A higher-spec version features an 1.83GHz processor, the same 15.4-inch screen and a 100GB hard drive and costs £1,779.

"The MacBook Pro is the fastest Mac notebook ever, obviously," Jobs said.