Apple's New IMac Is 'Death Of The CRT,' Jobs SaysApple's New IMac Is 'Death Of The CRT,' Jobs Says

With PC sales mired in a funk and manufacturers vying for low-cost leadership, Apple Computer again bucked the beige-box trend, unveiling a redesigned iMac personal computer that features a flat-panel monitor and will cost about $1,800 in a potentially popular configuration.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says the new iMacs--revisions to the all-in-one computer the company introduced in 1998--will start shipping at the end of this month. The computers, featuring 15-inch LCDs mounted on a chrome arm that swivels above a 10.4-inch dome-shaped base, will be priced at $1,299, $1,499, and $1,799, according to their CPU clock speed, memory capacity, and disk-drive configurations. All include Apple's G4 microprocessor. "We expect the demand for these models to be large," Jobs said Monday during his keynote address at Apple's semiannual Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

The most expensive new iMac runs at 800 MHz and features Apple's SuperDrive, which reads and writes CD-ROMs, CDs, and DVDs. Shipments begin this month. The $1,499 model, scheduled to ship in February, features a 700-MHz G4 and DVD-ROM and rewritable CD drive. The $1,299 model includes a rewritable CD drive and a 700-MHz CPU, and it will ship in March. "This is the official death of the CRT," Jobs said. Biotech company Genentech Inc. has ordered 1,000 new iMacs, he said.

With Apple sales down 33% last year, the company needs a boost. Jobs said Apple will cut the price of its introductory iBook laptop computer by $100, to $1,199. The company introduced a 14-inch-screen version of the portable that weighs 5.9 pounds, runs at 600 MHz, and is priced at $1,799. By the end of this month, Jobs said, all new Apple computers will boot up running the company's Mac OS X operating system, introduced last year.

Apple also introduced a new software application, iPhoto, for saving, organizing, and publishing digital photos to the Web. It's free for OS X users. Apple says about 2,500 apps run on OS X. Chief among them: Microsoft Office for Mac OS X, introduced last fall. But Macintosh users are still waiting for Adobe Systems Inc. to ship Photoshop for the new operating system, a point that Jobs underlined during his keynote presentation.

In other news, Apple says it has sold 125,000 iPod MP3 music players since November. The company operates 27 retail stores, where 40% of CPU sales have been to customers who don't already own a Macintosh, Jobs said. "We are thrilled with this number," he said. About 5% of all computer users own a Macintosh.

Jobs also said that the state of Maine has placed an order for 36,000 iBooks, the largest educational order in the company's history.

Apple shares were down 79 cents, to $22.90, at the close of trading Monday. The company's stock has been as high as $27.12 and as low as $14.68 during the past year.