"Apple began the transition to Intel Core Duo-based notebooks in February with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and now just 90 days later we have completed the transition with the release of the all new MacBook," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

Tempting students

The new laptops have much in common with the more expensive MacBook Pro models, such as the built-in webcam.

The 13-inch widescreen MacBooks feature Intel Core Duo chips, with prices starting at £749 ($1,099).

Apple says the new chips mean the laptops are four to five times faster than their predecessors.

The MacBooks come in time for the important back-to-school shopping season.

Apple is hoping the Intel-based consumer laptops could tempt students away from Windows-based notebooks.

In April, Apple released a program called Boot Camp that made it easy to install Windows XP on new Macs.

The software opened a whole new world of compatibility to anybody with a Mac running one of the new Intel processors.

Boot Camp is currently available as a free trial, and it is scheduled to form part of Leopard, the next version of Apple's OS X operating system.