iPods. iMacs. iBooks. The i in Apple's most popular products stands for Internet. It is a play on the iGeneration, referencing the Internet generation (1985-1995). It may also have been a play on Steve Jobs's title at the company at the time of the introduction of the i. He was the interim CEO or iCEO. Now the i is one of the most recognizable brand names in electronic computer entertainment, and Apple may have yet another use for the i: Intel.
Two weeks ago at the MacWorld expo, Apple introduced two new products: the newest in the iMac line and the MacBook Pro, both featuring Intel Core Duo processors.
At the expo, Jobs introduced the new iMac by saying, "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. With Mac OS X plus Intel's latest dual-core processor under the hood, the new iMac delivers performance that will knock our customers' socks off."
Apple is basing its claims that the iMac will run twice as fast and the MacBook Pro will run four times as fast as their predecessors on industry tests of the new processors as they would run with the Mac OS X.
Rachael Smithey is the guide to Macs on About.com. She explains the switch to an Intel core may not immediately affect the market.
"I think time will tell as to whether the move to Intel will significantly impact the popularity of Apple desktops and notebooks," Smithey said, "At present there are some applications that are not yet supported on Intel-based Macs, so it is likely that many professionals will wait until universal versions of their favorite applications become available."
Smithey said she was able to try out the new products at the MacWorld expo.
"I was able to check out the iMac Intel Core Duo and the MacBook Pro at the Macworld Conference and Expo and the speeds are extremely impressive," she said.
However, she added that to the average consumer the change to Intel might not matter.
"The average consumer may not be aware of or even really need to care about the change, so long as the Mac serves its purpose as a tool to accomplish a task," Smithey said.
In a conference call last week, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said about the launch, "We are very confident. We are happy that we were able to do this and we are very optimistic about the future of the Mac."
Apple's chief operating officer Tim Cook added, "We're going to continue to make the best products on the face of the earth-that's why we're here."
After the major announcement on Jan. 10 introducing the new products into the market, Apple was ready last week to release the company's financial results for the fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31 through the conference call with Cook and Oppenheimer.
The company reported that it earned its highest revenue in the history of the company due to the sale of 1,254,000 Macintosh computers and 14,043,000 iPods.
The company credited the success to the popularity of the iPod as a holiday gift. However, the executives recognized that this will mean a decline in sales for the current financial quarter.
"The iPod was one of the top holiday gifts this quarter so it's natural to think sales would be down in the current quarter," Oppenheimer said.
He added that because of the new release of products from the MacWorld expo it is difficult to say what will happen this quarter.
"It is very difficult to predict how consumers will act this quarter ... We're hopeful we can meet demand for the new iMac; however, we may not be able to meet demand on the MacBook Pro, because it won't start shipping until February," Oppenheimer said.
Smithey said the success the company reported shows her that Apple may be leaning in a different direction in the future.
"Apple's greatest successes over the past year were in the development and sales of the iPod," she said, "Apple sold more iPods and fewer computers than analysts expected. The iTunes Music Store has also been very successful. The ROKR iTunes phone which Motorola produced in partnership with Apple has not been a big hit, and there is speculation that Apple will be releasing its own iPod phone. I think these are all signs that Apple may eventually focus less on traditional computer hardware (desktops, notebooks)."
Cook and Oppenheimer would not comment on future releases for this quarter, ending April 1, or future motives for Apple, but Cook said, "Anything we're planning on doing - we've already factored into our guidance for this quarter."
The two executives said they plan on this current financial quarter being the second highest earning quarter in Apple's history, second only to last quarter, and only because of the holiday season.
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