Apple unveils faster iMac just in time for holidays

Apple introduced larger-screen versions of its top-selling iMac desktop computer and said it's offering an updated MacBook notebook, the last new products for this holiday-shopping season.

The refashioned glass and aluminum-clad iMac starts at $1,199 with a 21.5-inch widescreen LED display, the Cupertino, Calif., company said Tuesday. Both the iMac and 13.3-inch MacBook are shipping now.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs typically unveils products before the holiday-shopping season, one of Apple's most important sales periods. The Mac is the company's biggest moneymaker, accounting for 40 percent of revenue. Apple said Monday that it sold a record 3.05 million Macs last quarter, which helped drive earnings past analysts' projections.

"We're really happy to announce the final products of our holiday lineup," Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, said. "That's it. This is our strongest lineup ever."

A 27-inch iMac starts at $1,699, Cook said. Previous iMacs had 20-inch and 24-inch displays. The new models are thinner than their predecessors, more environmentally friendly and ship with the newest Mac operating system software, Snow Leopard, which was released in August.

The larger screens should appeal to people using the Mac to watch television shows and movies purchased or rented from Apple's iTunes store, Cook said.

"The message here is they are shifting the lines between a TV and an iMac, clearly geared more toward media," said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. "These new products should cause Apple's Mac business growth rate to increase in the December quarter."

The iMacs come with the company's new Magic Mouse, which is based partly on the multitouch technology used in the iPhone and iPod Touch player and can be configured as a one- or two-button device. "Once you use it, you'll never want to use another mouse again," Cook said. The mouse will also be sold separately for $69 later this month.

The MacBook has inherited some of the design features and technology from Apple's more powerful MacBook Pro models while retaining the same $999 starting price, Cook said. That includes a seamless "unibody" design, seven-hour battery life and widescreen LED-backlit display.

The changes are "meaningful," said Piper Jaffray's Munster, who recommends buying Apple shares. "Sometimes they do small adjustments. This one is more substantial."

Customers switching from PCs running Microsoft's rival Windows operating system are a "major part of our growth," Cook said.

Microsoft will release a new version of its software, Windows 7, on Thursday.

Apple climbed $8.90, or 4.7 percent, to $198.76 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have more than doubled this year.