Apple Beats the Calendar and the Street

Apple Computer introduced on Tuesday its first Macintosh computers using chips from Intel, several months ahead of schedule. Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, unveiled a new iMac computer and a new notebook computer called the MacBook Pro at Macworld Expo here, a highly anticipated annual event at which the company usually shows off new products and initiatives. Mr. Jobs also revealed that Apple's revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 jumped 63 percent, to $5.7 billion. The figure easily beat Wall Street's expectations, as sales of the iPod portable music player more than tripled compared with the holiday quarter in 2004. Revenue for that quarter was $3.5 billion.

Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at IDC, a market research company, said the new Intel-based Macs would for the first time let customers compare Macs with PC's directly, since the microprocessors and other internal parts would be the same. But that could work to Apple's disadvantage, given that the company still charges a premium for its systems, Mr. O'Donnell said. "They're playing in a whole new field now," he said.

Source: NY Times

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