Steve Jobs on Monday introduced Leopard, Apple Computer's new operating system that should be available to the public early next year -- about the same time that Microsoft is supposed to release its operating system, Vista.
The Apple CEO also announced the completion of the company's under-the-hood makeover of its computers to Intel chips with the unveiling of the new Mac Pro desktop for creative professionals.
With each detail, the throng of 4,200 predominantly software engineers attending Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco gasped and whooped. Cameras flashed as Jobs commanded the blue-hued stage. All that was missing were the models.
Though Apple's market hog iPod digital music player seems to get most of the headlines these days, the Cupertino company made Monday all about the Mac, the group of computers that has less than 5 percent of the market but is slowly gaining some ground.
Apple hopes the speedy switch in chips -- it has taken the company only eight months to make all its computers Intel-based -- will continue a surge in computer sales. The company reported a 47.5 percent jump in profit last quarter, buoyed by sales of 1.3 million Mac computers, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the previous quarter and 12 percent over the same period a year ago.
Other features of Leopard include ``Time Machine,'' an easy, and visually fun, way to retrieve deleted files, applications, photos and other material. The program gives the appearance of backward time travel through the universe, automatically backing up everything on the Mac to an external hard drive or server.
``Spaces'' will let users jump between applications with a simple keystroke or click. ``It's almost like having a separate desktop,'' Brian Croll, Apple's senior director of Mac OS X product marketing, said in an interview.
There will be updates to Mail, including simple functions to create to-do lists and files for notes -- for people who treat e-mail like a calendar by sending themselves reminder messages. People will also be able to create custom messages with photos and ``stationary.'' Apple's iChat will get upgrades that will allow users to add photo and video backdrops, giving the appearance they are somewhere they are not.
With Web Clip, users can create their own Dashboard widgets, small applications that deliver, for example, weather information on desktops, from just about anything on the Web, such as a constantly updating cartoon, a video or even live Webcam scene.
Apple's ability to quickly pivot from one architecture to another is ``breathtaking,'' said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with research firm Insight 64.
As far as tech celebrity goes, Jobs is at the top of the list, and the thousands of developers responded enthusiastically to his every move. Even the announcement of a new Apple server, the Xserve, all but brought the house down.
Apple said Leopard will be ready in the spring, but would give no further details. Some speculated Jobs would like nothing better than to beat Microsoft to the market and get Leopard in the hands of consumers before Vista hits the stores.
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