• WSJ (paid subscription required), Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:30 AM

Six months earlier than promised, Apple Computer introduced new Macintosh personal computers with microprocessors from Intel Corp. that will make the machines more competitive with PCs based on Microsoft's Windows operating system. The company also announced record holiday sales that far surpassed their own and analysts projections. For the three months ending December, Apple reported revenue of $5.7 billion, up 63 percent from $3.49 billion in the same period the prior year and $1 billion more than Apple had projected for the quarter. Much of the success came from sales of its iPod digital-music player; Apple sold 14 million iPods in the quarter, two million to three million more than some of the most optimistic forecasts. The new iMac desktop computer looks the same and is priced the same--starting at $1,299--as older models. Yet the two Intel chips that power the new iMac allow the computer to run two to three times faster than current iMacs.

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