Apple says on track to ship Intel-based computers

PARIS (Reuters) - Apple Computer is on track to ship Intel-based computers as targeted by June 2006, chief executive Steve Jobs said on Tuesday.

"We are on track to do that," Jobs told a news conference in Paris, referring to the plan the company announced in June this year.

Apple said on 6 June that it was severing its long-standing relationship with International Business Machines 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 centres of personal computers (PCs).

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 IBM.

Jobs said Apple has a 4.5 percent share of the PC market in the United States and a 3 percent share globally.

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