Apple set to ship Intel-based computers
Steve Jobs says the company is on track to deliver PCs with Intel chips by next summer.
"We are on track to do that," Jobs told a news conference in Paris, referring to the plan the company announced in June.
Apple said June 6 that it was severing its long-standing relationship with IBM and switching to microprocessors made by Intel, aiming to have all its Macintosh computers using Intel chips by the end of 2007. Microprocessors are the number-crunching nerve centers of personal computers.
Apple had publicly expressed frustration with IBM for over a year prior to the decision.
IBM had had problems producing enough working versions of its PowerPC 970 chip, which Apple calls the G5. IBM had also to produce a version of the G5 that consumes less power and was suitable for use in Apple's laptop personal computers.
Apple's decision was a high-profile win for Intel, the world's largest chipmaker and a blow to IBM, though analysts said the Apple-IBM tie-up was never hugely profitable for Big Blue.
Jobs said Apple has a 4.5 percent share of the PC market in the United States and a 3 percent share globally.