Apple unveiled new versions of its Macbook Air and Mac Mini Wednesday, and launched its new operating system Mac OS X Lion, a day after announcing record financial results spurred by strong sales of its popular iPhone and iPad.
Apple is hoping that its new computers, which feature backlit keyboards, multitouch trackpads, faster chips and a new expansion technology called Thunderbolt I/O will help it attract more buyers away from Windows—powered PCs.
Sales of its Macbooks are already outperforming PC sales, growing 14 per cent in the last quarter, compared to 2 per cent growth for PCs. The introduction of the new models coincided with the axing of the popular white MacBook, an entry level line of Apple computers.
The MacBook Air sells for between 999 dollars and 1,699 dollars, depending on features.
The new operating system is the eighth major release of the Apple software and boasts some 250 new features including support for full screen apps, new program launchers, an autosave feature that automatically saves all documents, and a tool which automatically records the history of every document.
Apple posted record quarterly revenue Tuesday, doubling its profit as the technology trailblazer sold 20.34 million iPhones and 9.25 million iPads.
The Silicon Valley company said it had sales of 28.57 billion dollars in the latest quarter, up 82 per cent from 15.7 billion dollars in sales from the same period a year ago. Profits rose 125 per cent to 7.31 billion dollars, compared to 3.25 billion dollars a year ago.
Sales of iPhones represented a 142—per—cent jump, despite the widely expected release of a newer model later in the year, which can deter current buyers. iPad sales soared 183 per cent, easily fending off a rash of competitors powered by Google, HP and RIM. The company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter.
