Apple launches Intel iMac and Powerbook, new iPod and bunch of software

Steve Jobs has just finished his keynote speech at MacWorld. And he has sprayed the tech universe with a buch of new goodies.

First came goodies for investors. Revenues shot up over 65% to $5.7 billion for the quarter that ended in December. Apple sold 14 million iPods in the holiday quarter. "And it still wasn't enough," Jobs said. "More iPods are on the way."

Of the 42M iPods Apple has sold since the first model was introduced, 32M were sold last year. The company has also sold 850M songs via its iTunes online music store. And they have sold 8M videos.

Then Jobs sprayed the universe with product goodies. First came the FM Tuner and TV clicker add-on for the iPod and it also looks like a new and even more powerful iPod is on its way. But no new major content deals were announced.

Then Jobs shifted to software with a bunch of updates to their portfolio. There's a new version of their O/S Tiger with Google search bar and ESPN bar also. The iLife software pack has been completely updated with lots there for movie making, podcasting, music burning etc etc. Now you can even burn CD's to play on any player.

Next up was web services. Jobs announed that .Mac now has 1 million users and that they're launching a new web site building tool for dummies called iWeb, which allows you to build blogsites too.

But for the finale came the all important Intel Mac's and Powerbooks. The big news is that their available for order today!!! It will take a while before software gets upgraded for better uniformity, but the Apple translation package will act as a vital bridge.

OK, so we didn't get the Apple iPod mobile phone or the Apple wide screen TV, or even iTunes content deals with Hollywood studios. But, given that this is a Macworld event investors and customers alike should be delighted that Intel Macs are hear and much earlier than anyone expected.

So Mac fans are left yelping and investors too as Apple's shares jumped to new highs! Nice one mr Jobs.