Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. introduced larger-screen versions of its top-selling iMac desktop computer and said it’s offering an updated MacBook notebook, the last new products for this holiday shopping season.

The refashioned glass and aluminum-clad iMac starts at $1,199 with a 21.5-inch widescreen LED display, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a statement. Both the iMac and 13.3-inch MacBook are shipping now.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs typically unveils products before the holiday shopping season, one of Apple’s most important sales periods. The Mac is the company’s biggest moneymaker, accounting for 40 percent of revenue. Apple said yesterday that it sold a record 3.05 million Macs last quarter, which helped drive earnings past analysts’ projections.

“We’re really happy to announce the final products of our holiday lineup,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in an interview. “That’s it. This is our strongest lineup ever.”

A 27-inch iMac starts at $1,699, Cook said. Previous iMacs had 20-inch and 24-inch displays. The new models are thinner than their predecessors, more environmentally friendly and ship with the newest Mac operating system software, Snow Leopard, which was released in August. The larger screens should appeal to people using the Mac to watch television shows and movies purchased or rented from Apple’s iTunes store, Cook said.

“The message here is they are shifting the lines between a TV and an iMac, clearly geared more toward media,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. “These new products should cause Apple’s Mac business growth rate to increase in the December quarter.”

Multitouch Mouse

The iMacs come with the company’s new Magic Mouse, which is based partly on the multitouch technology used in the iPhone and iPod Touch player and can be configured as a one- or two-button device. “Once you use it, you’ll never want to use another mouse again,” Cook said. The mouse will also be sold separately for $69 later this month.

The white polycarbonate MacBook has inherited some of the design features and technology from Apple’s more powerful MacBook Pro models while retaining the same $999 starting price, Cook said. That includes a seamless “unibody” design, 7-hour battery life and widescreen LED-backlit display.

The changes are “meaningful,” said Piper Jaffray’s Munster, who recommends buying Apple shares. “Sometimes they do small adjustments. This one is more substantial.”

Windows Switchers

Customers switching from PCs running Microsoft Corp.’s rival Windows operating system are a “major part of our growth,” Cook said. Microsoft will release a new version of its software, Windows 7, on Oct. 22 to win over buyers who decided to skip its last update, Windows Vista.

Cook said Apple is confident users will continue to switch from Windows to the Mac.

“Whether it’s Windows 7 or Windows 10 or Windows 95 or 2000 or all the Windows, people are just sick of all the headaches that go along with it,” Cook said. “I look at their Windows 7 announcement as just another fantastic opportunity to grab more share.”

Windows 7, combined with personal computers to be released this month, will provide simple, fun and productive computing “at price points that fit every shopper’s budget,” Jay Paulus, a director of Windows Client Product Management, said in an e- mail. “That’s value and choice you won’t find on any Mac.”

Demand for Mac notebooks has outpaced that of Apple’s desktops. Yesterday, the company said notebook shipments rose 35 percent, compared with a 16 percent drop in desktop shipments.

Mac Mini

To help spur desktop orders, Apple also introduced a faster version of its Mac Mini, a machine sold without a monitor or mouse, that offers more storage and double the memory. Prices start at $599.

Apple climbed $8.90, or 4.7 percent, to $198.76 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have more than doubled this year.

The company yesterday reported fourth-quarter profit and revenue that topped analysts’ estimates, driving shares up to levels not seen since the iPhone first emerged as a hit product two years ago.

Net income in the period ended Sept. 26 jumped 47 percent to $1.67 billion, or $1.82 a share, on sales of $9.87 billion, a gain of 25 percent from a year earlier.

Apple has cut iPod prices, added new models and ran a back- to-school Mac promotion to fuel sales. That helped it sell 7.4 million iPhones and 10.2 million iPods last quarter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 20, 2009 16:18 EDT