With new iMacs, Apple tries to reboot desktops
Apple Inc. is revamping the product that put it on the high-tech map: the desktop computer.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday introduced a line of iMac computers that are thinner and faster than their predecessors. The computers come with new software for storing and editing video and photos. The product’s slogan is, “The new iMac. You can’t be too thin. Or too powerful.”
“There’s not going to be any more sending DVDs to grandmom,” Jobs said as he demonstrated how to quickly post a video online.
Apple has garnered attention from its push into the mobile-phone market with the iPhone and from the success of its iPod digital music and video player. But the Cupertino, Calif.-based company thinks it can still get lots of mileage out of its line of iMacs.
The new computers come with a 20-inch screen for $1,199 or a 24-inch for $1,799.
The iMacs go on sale at a time when the desktop computer has sunk in status -- it’s almost the forgotten stepsister of the jazzier notebook computer. In the last quarter, desktops accounted for 36% of the 1.76 million Macintosh computers sold. The rest were notebooks.
But by introducing a new line of iMacs, Apple hopes to breathe life into the desktops and woo customers away from Windows-based PCs.
“We think customers are going to switch because of this stuff,” Jobs said
In the second quarter, Apple moved into a tie with Gateway Inc. for third place in computer sales, with 5.6% of the U.S. market. Dell Inc. is No. 1, followed by Hewlett-Packard Co.
Apple computers “provide another option for people on the fence or for consumers wanting to do more with digital media,” said Mike McGuire, vice president of research at Gartner Inc., a market research firm. “Are HP and Dell going to be real worried? Probably not for a while. But they all have to be concerned with how Apple runs its advertisements and draws people into its stores.”
Apple’s shares fell 22 cents to $135.03.
