Otellini: Apple/Intel partnership "one of the best things in my career"

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 6/11/2007

SAN FRANCISCO -- At Monday morning's keynote address at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) being held here this week, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs outlined a host of new features included in Leopard, Apple's latest operating system set to ship in October.

And although the bulk of the keynote concentrated on software, Paul Otellini, CEO of leading chipmaker Intel Corp., made a brief appearance during Jobs' keynote this morning, solidifying Intel's recently-forged relationship with Apple and alluding to new jointly-developed products on the horizon.  Apple began transitioning to Intel processors last year after previously using IBM-based technology; today, Jobs thanked Otellini for his work in making the transition complete, and said that the two companies are working on "great stuff for future products." 

"Working with Apple is one of the best things in my career, and one of the best things for Intel," Otellini said.

Getting back to WWDC's software angle and taking aim squarely at rival Microsoft's Windows Vista operation system which debuted last year amid analyst criticisms about its cost and complexity, Jobs went on to announce that all-feature-inclusive versions of Leopard will debut at an across-the-board price of $129 for a single user license. A Mac OS X Leopard family pack, a single-residence, five-user license, will be available for a suggested retail price of $199.

Leopard introduces over 300 new features, including a new desktop and dock with "stacks," a new way to organize files; an updated finder featuring "cover flow" and a new way to easily browse and share files between multiple Macs; "quick look," a new way to rapidly preview most files without opening an application; "time machine," a new way to easily and automatically back up and restore lost files or a complete Mac; "spaces," a new feature to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and enhanced iChat and mail applications. The new OS also includes "boot camp," which was previously only available from a download, and full native 64-bit support to enable applications to take complete advantage of 64-bit processing while still running side by side with existing 32-bit Mac OS X applications and drivers.

"Leopard is the best release of Mac OS X to date, surpassing even Tiger, and will further extend Mac OS X's leadership as the most advanced and innovative operating system in the world," Jobs said.

And as buzz builds about Apple's debut on the mobile phone market in anticipation of the iPhone's June 29th debut, at his speech's conclusion Jobs took note of the new handset's upcoming release and outlined a new software feature to complement it. Jobs said that the iPhone will run applications created with Web 2.0 Internet standards when it begins shipping; according to Apple, developers will be able to create Web 2.0 applications which look and behave just like the applications built into iPhone, and which can seamlessly access iPhone's services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps. In addition, Jobs said, third-party applications created using Web 2.0 standards can extend iPhone's capabilities-- without compromising its reliability or security—and be made available for instant distribution.