Many saw that as an obvious nod toward IBM's desire to start putting more of its chips into Apple's Macintosh Computers.
Back then it was called AppleLink, a project commissioned by Apple Computer and a company called Quantum Computer Services to connect Apple II and Macintosh computers.
The dual-core Power6 chip boasts a top speed of 4.7 gigahertz, double that of IBM's previous Power5 and represents a next generation processor to the PowerPC, the chip that was previously used in Apple's Macintosh computers.
The service is as yet only available to users of Apple's Macintosh computers, but should debut for users of Microsoft 's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Windows platform before the end of the year.
Strong sales of Macintosh computers sent Apple's quarterly earnings up 26.1% over the year-ago period, Apple reported Tuesday.
Apple said it shipped 743, 000 Macintosh computers, about the same number as it did in the previous quarter.
Apple said that it sold 4.9 million Macintosh computers in the latest quarter, a 1% rise from the same three-month period last year.
Motorola alleges that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iTouch and some Macintosh computers illegally use Motorola's technology.
Mr Jobs co-founded Apple in the 1970s with Steve Wozniak, and its Macintosh computers became hugely popular in the 1980s.
Wozniak said that Apple's market-changing products - from the Macintosh computers, through to the iPod, iPhone and iPad - were down to Jobs' instinctive feel for what people wanted from technology.
So far, the new service is available only in America, to users of Apple's Macintosh machines, which account for under 5% of personal computers.
The dual-core Power6 chip boasts a top speed of 4.7 gigahertz, double that of IBM's previous Power5 and represents a next generation processor to the PowerPC, the chip that was previously used in Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people )'s Macintosh computers.
It will not support Apple Computer 's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) Macintosh computers, at least not at first.
He had resuscitated the Macintosh PC line but Apple products still represented a very small percentage of the total desktop computers purchased in the world.
FORBES: Steve Jobs and Apple's Astounding Legacy for The American Enterprise
It will also work with most of Apple Computer 's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people) Macintosh computers, as long as they're running a version of the operating system that is 8.0 or higher, but not the upcoming Mac OS X, at least not yet.
And as Apple executives had hoped, the iPod's popularity is helping drive up sales of its Macintosh computers.
For Apple, the move into smartphones was the next step in its shift to consumer-electronics juggernaut from maker of Macintosh computers.
Surging demand for iPhones and Macintosh computers sparked a 94.8% jump in earnings for the quarter ending in March, Apple reported Wednesday.
FORBES: Shares in iPad maker up more than 3% in after-hours trading.
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