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By Therese Poletti
CUPERTINO, Calif. (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. Wednesday unveiled a sleek new computer called the iMac with a price of $1,299 as part of a bid to regain share in the consumer market.
Apple also introduced a new line of PowerBook notebook computers designed around its G3 microprocessor, starting at $2,299 and available now.
"We have an incredibly great shot at coming back in the consumer market," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim chief executive. "We have a great brand. The brand is known around the world ... We think iMac is going to be a really big deal."
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company also struck out at Intel Corp., saying Apple's new computers would outperform current PCs based on Intel's Pentium processors.
At a news conference here, Jobs demonstrated the new all-in-one, Internet-ready Mac, housed in a translucent case, and said he believed Apple would begin to win back market share with the new products.
Jobs said Apple's share of the personal computer market grew to 4 percent in its fiscal second quarter ended in March, from 3.4 percent in its first fiscal quarter, according to International Data Corp.
"We expect it to rise quite a bit more based on some of the things we will show you here today," Jobs said.
Apple said the iMac boasts easy Internet access, and "Pentium-toasting ... performance." The computer comes with a PowerPC G3 microprocessor that runs at 233 megahertz.
"We designed iMac to deliver the things consumers care about most -- the excitement of the Internet and the simplicity of the Mac," he said in a statement. "iMac is next year's computer for $1,299; not last year's computer for $999."
Apple said the new PowerBook G3 outperforms Pentium and Pentium II notebook computers and could be built to order in more than 1,000 possible configurations.
"Our design team came up with a great looking PowerBook with performance that blows away Pentium notebooks at all key price points," Jobs said in a statement.
Apple said it was committed to introducing a low-cost mobile computer based on the Mac operating system next year.
Apple also expanded its online store to the education market, launching the Apple Store for Education (www.apple.com/education/store) and The Apple Store UK (www.euro.apple.com/ukstore).
"The Apple Store has been an incredible success with over 136 million hits and over $40 million in orders since it opened last November," Jobs said. "We're extending its reach today to two very important markets: education and the U.K."
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