January 10, 2006, marked the D-day for Apple Computers at the Annual Macworld Conference, which was held in San Francisco, USA. It launched the new version of its iMac computer, featuring Intel core duo processor. The Cupertino- (California) based company Apple computers joined hands with Santa Clara- (California) based Intel Corporation, the processor giant. The good part of the story is that the new Intel processors perform twice as efficiently as that of their predecessors, the IBM processors. That is not all. As additional features, the new iMac has a built-in iSight video camera, which would enable video conferencing, with various digital lifestyle applications such as iMovie to make one's own movies, Garageband to create own music, iWeb to create a personalized website and many more. In a nutshell, the new iMac is a new generation Macintosh (Mac) computer featuring Intel processors. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said: "With Mac Operating System (OS), Version X, along with Intel's latest dual-core processor under the hood, the new iMac delivers performance that will knock our customers' socks off."
But, was Apple not providing computers with IBM processors? The answer is yes. Nevertheless, the reason for the shift is simple. Quite often Apple had delivery problems with IBM. Apart from that, IBM could not provide Apple with various working versions of the PowerPC 970 chip, called the G5, which consumes less power and is considered an idle processor for Apple's laptop computers. IBM was not able to live up to this expectation. In addition to this, Apple had also expressed its frustration with IBM publicly about a year ago. Due to this rift, the bad news for IBM was that because of non-performance issues, Apple decided to ditch IBM and join hands with Intel, the world's largest chipmaker. This move was certainly a blow to IBM. However, s opined that the Apple-IBM tie-up was never a fruitful deal, especially for the former partner.
From being a company which set up the personal computer revolution in the 1970s, Apple Computers has moved on and covered a remarkable journey. By the 1980s, the company reinvented the personal computer with its Macintosh OS. Today, the company is leading the industry with award-winning products from desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, iLife, and professional applications. In addition to this, Apple along with its iPod portable music players has created ripples in digital music. In terms of market share in 2005, Apple holds a 4.5% share and 3% share in the Personal Computers (PC) market in the US and global arena, respectively. With new processors from Intel, Apple is looking ahead to feature all its Mac computers with Intel chips by the end of 2007.
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