Apple pitches G4 against PIII chips

Mac vendor aims to steal share from Intel processors.

Apple continued its attempt to reposition itself as a leading player in the business market by unveiling machines that it claims will rival Intel specification boxes.

The G4 is hoping to build on the success of the iMac and G3 computers.

Apple announced the move at the Seybold Seminars last week, which are aimed at its core desktop publishing users.

In his keynote speech, Steve Jobs, interim chief executive of Apple, claimed systems built on a PowerPC chip - the 400, 450 and 500MHz G4 - would rival those running Intel's Pentium III chip.

He described the G4 as a supercomputer on a chip, and said desktop systems running the 400MHz version would be available immediately. Machines based on 450MHz PowerPC processors would ship in two weeks, while a 500MHz model was scheduled for next month.

But while analysts ripped into Jobs' claims that the G4 ran almost three times as fast as the PIII "using Intel's own benchmark tests", John Warnock, chief executive of Adobe, argued: "The G4 is faster than any platform we've seen running Photoshop 5.5."

He added: "Of all the machines we've seen, this is the fastest one that runs our applications. One of the nicest things about having Apple back is that this industry is no longer boring."

Jobs had lost credibility over similar claims made following his interpretation of the benchmarks for Apple's iMac consumer machines. However, the G4 announcement sent Apple's stock soaring to a 52-week high of $65.25.

While users in the publishing sector will undoubtedly endorse the G4 machines, Jobs tried to broaden their appeal by saying the technology would speed up tasks such as encoding digital media and running internet applications.

He added: "We have preserved the design features of the Power Mac G3 in the G4's range of professional colours, which are silver, clear and graphite gray."

But Jobs also pandered to the publishing crowd by announcing a 22in Apple Cinema Display, which he claimed was the largest LCD-based flat-panel display ever brought to market.

The monitor will ship in limited quantities from the start of next month.