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Yesterday's keynote speech by Steve Jobs rivalled former Apple CEO Gil Amelio's infamous two and a half hour address a few years ago. Here the similarity ended though, as Jobs wooed the crowds by telling them that in the last quarter, which closed at the end of December, Apple sold a record 1,350,000 Macs.

Jobs said: 'We have now filled our product matrix and we are firing on all cylinders...We have sold more Macs in one quarter than in any other in Apple's history. This is equivalent to one Mac every six seconds.'

He told the audience the Power Mac G4s were selling well and that the portables (both the recently introduced iBook and the PowerBooks) had captured an 11% share of the US retail and mail order market in November, the highest market share Apple has had in years.

The iBook, claimed Jobs, had been a huge success and was the the best selling consumer portable in the US during October and November. Interestingly, 28% of iBook buyers were new to the platform, and significantly 17% were Intel 'switchers'.

Of the new iMacs, the Special Edition model had been the biggest hit, and 44% of iMac buyers in the last quarter were new to the platform.

He praised the company's video editing software, iMovie, which is bundled with all iMac DV machines and said it was very strategic for Apple. Already10% of iMac DV users had used the software to create movies, he claimed: 'We think Desktop Movies are going to be huge,' said Jobs.

To promote iMovie there will be a series of TV ads and a Think Different campaign honouring famous film directors.

In other software news, Jobs unbelievably only made a passing reference to the release of AppleWorks 6.0, which has not been upgraded for two years. Due in February for $77, AppleWorks 6 will feature a revamped interface, the

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addition of a presentation module and more than 100 new features.

On the hardware side Jobs made no mention of new PowerBooks which had been widely expected. It is the only remaining product line yet to be revamped and redesigned in line with the other machines.

This was the first keynote in years where there were no new hardware announcements at all, apart from third-party product offerings which included a tiny translucent USB-powered scanner from Canon and a miniature 100Gb Portable RAID drive from VST.

Sources said Apple did not want to rush into announcing the new PowerBook, reportedly called the Pismo, and was going to wait until it was totally happy with the design and the feature set. Macworld Tokyo in March could be a likely venue for its introduction.

Jobs instead concentrated on exciting the crowds with Apple's Internet strategy and the first showing of Mac OS X's new interface, known as Aqua (see separate story).

Apple is moving "Beyond the box", Jobs said and focusing on the Internet, in particular developing tools which make it easier to use and navigate the Internet. To demonstrate this, Jobs unveiled a series of new Internet-based services and a revamped Web site that resembles a portal similar to Excite.

Among the services available is iReview, which reviews Web sites, and iCards, an electronic greeting card site. iTools is a set of services which offers personalised Web addresses, an intelligently integrated Internet storage space that gives users 20Mb of free storage space, site blocking for children and a means of creating personal websites quickly.

The new Web strategy also included a tie-in with a Mac-friendly ISP partner, EarthLink. It will be the default ISP in Apple's Internet Setup Software included with every Mac, and will offer US Mac users access to the Internet and full Mac support.

Apple has invested $200 million in EarthLink and will profit from every new Mac user that subscribes to the ISP. No announcement was made about a similar deal happening in the UK.

Jobs rounded off his keynote by announcing he was dropping the interim from his job title and will now officially be Apple's CEO after two and half years in residence. He said, however, he would keep the i to symbolize the importance of the Internet to the company.

The announcement brought the crowds to their feet in a standing ovation.