PARIS – Apple Computer unveiled, after a two-month delay, its new iMac desktop computer on Tuesday which integrates disk drives and processors into a flat display less than two inches thick.
“Now we have the world’s thinnest desktop computer,” Phil Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing, said in a keynote presentation at the annual Apple Expo in Paris. Shipping from mid-September, Apple said the computer would be available in versions with a 17-inch and a 20-inch display, with a wireless keyboard and mouse.Apple said in July the launch of the new iMac would be delayed until September.It put a dent in the share price of the company which has been at the forefront of computer innovation for decades, but whose global market share has been eroded to less than 5 percent amid competition from lower-priced PCs running on the Windows operating system from Microsoft.Retail prices of the new iMac will start at US$1 299 [about N$9 000] for the 17-inch model, or 1 399 euros in Europe.The slightly thicker 20-inch model will cost US$1 899 [about N$13 000].”This is a much more affordable line (of personal computers),” Schiller told a cheering audience of Macintosh users.He declined to give sales targets.The model will take over from the current iMac, which created a buzz when launched a few years ago with its minimalist design featuring a thin display perched on a stainless steel pole above a white hemispherical base.Sales of the iMac have slowed in recent quarters, but Apple’s portable notebook computers have still been doing well.”7,5 million iMacs have been sold over the last six years.It’s time for an entirely new iMac,” Schiller said.Analysts agreed the iMac had been in need of a makeover.The new design would take less space on a desk and this would push existing Apple users to trade in their old iMac.But the new design would not be enough to convince Windows users to switch, they said.”These devices are all about software.There’s nothing here that addresses the compatibility issues,” said analyst Brian Gammage at Gartner, referring to the fact that existing software running on Windows cannot be swapped to an Apple computer.The new model, designed by the same team that developed the iPod portable music player, works on G5 microprocessors.With the iPod, Apple broke into the consumer electronics market and has come to dominate the portable music segment where it claims 58 per cent of the U.S. market for MP3 players.Schiller also drew attention to Apple’s newly developed business of selling songs online through its iTunes Music Store.Stores that were opened to German, French and British customers 10 weeks ago have already sold 5 million tracks, he said.A fourth European iTunes store would open in October, which would give consumers in all other countries access to the catalogue, in English, Schiller told Reuters in an interview.Worldwide, Apple has sold more than four million iPods and sold more than 100 million songs in the United States since it was launched in April last year.The success of iPod and iTunes, by far the most popular online music store, has pushed Apple shares up from a six-year low of $12.92 in April 2003 to over $35 this week.Schiller reiterated that 49-year old Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who in the late 1990s came back to rescue the company which he had founded, was making a good recovery from cancer surgery.”He’s doing great.We really look forward to Steve coming back to work in September,” Schiller said.- Nampa-ReutersShipping from mid-September, Apple said the computer would be available in versions with a 17-inch and a 20-inch display, with a wireless keyboard and mouse.Apple said in July the launch of the new iMac would be delayed until September.It put a dent in the share price of the company which has been at the forefront of computer innovation for decades, but whose global market share has been eroded to less than 5 percent amid competition from lower-priced PCs running on the Windows operating system from Microsoft.Retail prices of the new iMac will start at US$1 299 [about N$9 000] for the 17-inch model, or 1 399 euros in Europe.The slightly thicker 20-inch model will cost US$1 899 [about N$13 000].”This is a much more affordable line (of personal computers),” Schiller told a cheering audience of Macintosh users.He declined to give sales targets.The model will take over from the current iMac, which created a buzz when launched a few years ago with its minimalist design featuring a thin display perched on a stainless steel pole above a white hemispherical base.Sales of the iMac have slowed in recent quarters, but Apple’s portable notebook computers have still been doing well.”7,5 million iMacs have been sold over the last six years.It’s time for an entirely new iMac,” Schiller said.Analysts agreed the iMac had been in need of a makeover.The new design would take less space on a desk and this would push existing Apple users to trade in their old iMac.But the new design would not be enough to convince Windows users to switch, they said.”These devices are all about software.There’s nothing here that addresses the compatibility issues,” said analyst Brian Gammage at Gartner, referring to the fact that existing software running on Windows cannot be swapped to an Apple computer.The new model, designed by the same team that developed the iPod portable music player, works on G5 microprocessors.With the iPod, Apple broke into the consumer electronics market and has come to dominate the portable music segment where it claims 58 per cent of the U.S. market for MP3 players.Schiller also drew attention to Apple’s newly developed business of selling songs online through its iTunes Music Store.Stores that were opened to German, French and British customers 10 weeks ago have already sold 5 million tracks, he said.A fourth European iTunes store would open in October, which would give consumers in all other countries access to the catalogue, in English, Schiller told Reuters in an interview.Worldwide, Apple has sold more than four million iPods and sold more than 100 million songs in the United States since it was launched in April last year.The success of iPod and iTunes, by far the most popular online music store, has pushed Apple shares up from a six-year low of $12.92 in April 2003 to over $35 this week.Schiller reiterated that 49-year old Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who in the late 1990s came back to rescue the company which he had founded, was making a good recovery from cancer surgery.”He’s doing great.We really look forward to Steve coming back to work in September,” Schiller said.- Nampa-Reuters
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