At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs officially announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Macintosh computers beginning in 2006. Jobs confirmed rumors that the company had secretly been producing versions of its current operating system, Mac OS X, for both PowerPC and Intel processors over the past 5 years, and that the transition to Intel processor systems would last until the end of 2007. Rumors of cross-platform compatibility had been spurred by the fact that Mac OS X is based on OpenStep, an operating system that was available for many platforms. In fact, Apple’s own Darwin, the open source underpinnings of Mac OS X, was also available for Intel’s x86 architecture.
On January 10, 2006, the first Intel-based machines, the iMac and MacBook Pro, were introduced. They were based on the Intel Core Duo platform. By August 7, 2006 Apple had transitioned the entire Mac product line to Intel chips, a year ahead of the originally quoted schedule. The Power Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition; the Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became their respective successors. On April 29, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was building its own team of engineers to design microchips.
Apple also introduced Boot Camp to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X.
In January 2007, Apple Computer, Inc. shortened its name to simply Apple Inc. In his keynote address, Jobs explained that with their current product mix consisting of the iPod and Apple TV as well as their Macintosh brand, Apple really wasn’t just a computer company anymore. At the same address, Jobs revealed a product that would revolutionize an industry in which Apple had never previously competed: the Apple iPhone. The iPhone combined Apple’s first widescreen iPod with the world’s first mobile device boasting visual voicemail, and an internet communicator able to run a fully functional version of Apple’s web browser, Safari, on the then-named iPhone OS.
Apple’s success during this period was evident in its stock price. Between early 2003 and 2006, the price of Apple’s stock increased more than tenfold, from around $6 per share (split-adjusted) to over $80. In January 2006, Apple’s market cap surpassed that of Dell.Nine years prior, Dell’s CEO Michael Dell said that if he ran Apple he would “shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Although Apple’s market share in computers had grown, it remained far behind competitors using Microsoft Windows, with only about 8% of desktops and laptops in the US.