San Francisco - Lest anyone had forgotten, Apple Inc chief executive Steve Jobs made it clear Monday that Apple's still a computer software maker, and it's still gunning for rival Microsoft Corp.
Apple's focus of late seems to have shifted away from its core computer lineup that competes directly with Microsoft - first to its iPod digital music player and now to its iPhone cell phone, which is to be sold beginning June 29.
Meanwhile, relations between the rival computer software makers seemed to be warming. It was only two weeks ago that Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates for the first time jointly addressed a trade show conference, during which each expressed their mutual admiration.
But Monday, Jobs dropped the gloves in an hour-long presentation to software developers about a new Apple operating system to rival Microsoft's.
While the thrust of Jobs' speech provided new details about Leopard, a new operating system that rivals Microsoft's and will be available to the general public starting October 7, the speech was dotted with anti-Microsoft barbs.
'Ahead of our competition'
"We're already ahead of our competition," Jobs said, in a thinly-veiled reference to Microsoft's Vista operating system. "Leopard sets the bar even higher."
As several analysts noted afterwards, the address served as a reminder that despite appearances of late, Apple still generates a significant amount of its revenues, about 40%, selling computer software.
"Apple is, first and foremost, a software company," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said, in a note to clients Monday after Jobs' address. "We believe the Leopard features highlighted today will help catalyse market share gains."
Jobs hurled verbal haymakers at rival Microsoft right from the start.
He began with a fake TV ad in which a character, pretending to be Steve Jobs, professed his love for all things Microsoft. He later on included a bit poking fun at Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Other new offerings panned
Jobs then showed off several new Apple features, many of which aim squarely at areas of computing that Microsoft dominates. For example, Leopard will be able to run Microsoft programming, which Shaw Wu, of investment firm American Technology Research, expects to be a "major sales catalyst" for Apple.
Meanwhile, Jobs also revealed a first-ever version of Apple's Safari internet browser that's compatible with PCs that use Microsoft's operating system.
The goal is to boost Safari's market share, Jobs said, which would mean whittling away at the 78% share of Microsoft's industry-leading Internet Explorer browsers.
While some features were being hailed, other new Apple offerings were panned. For instance, during his address on Monday, Jobs said developers will be able to create applications that run on the iPhone and Apple computers.
But the software won't be embedded on the phone, as some developers said they had hoped, which falls short of developers expectations.