SAN FRANCISCO - Having promised a new consumer product that is "innovative, revolutionary and different," Apple Computer took the wraps off a redesigned iMac on Monday, which looks more like a desk lamp than a desktop computer.

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The new machine swivels, bends and performs a number of built-in digital functions demonstrated by Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs during a keynote speech opening the Macworld Expo here. Packed with Apple's line of software for editing, storing and burning digital files, Jobs called the computer the hub of its digital strategy.

Apple unveiled three models of the new iMac, with one each expected to ship monthly through March. Each iMac contains Apple's G4 processor at 700MHz or 800MHz and sports a 15-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen. Apple's all-in-one Superdrive, which reads and writes both CDs and DVDs (digital versatile discs), will be shipped with the first model due out this month. It will sport a price tag of US$1,799.

"This is the best thing I think we've ever done," Jobs said. "It solves the whole cable mess problem & and every one has a flat screen."

Each model of the iMac will include five USB ports and two FireWire ports, all located on the back of the machine. The high-end model, which will be the first to ship later this month, will include the 800 MHz G4 processor, 256M bytes of RAM and a 60G-byte hard drive. A $1,499 model will run a 700 MHz chip and ship with 256 M bytes of RAM and a 40G-byte hard drive, when it is released in February. The low-end model is $1,299 and features a 700MHz chip, 128M bytes of memory and a 40G-byte hard drive. That model will ship in March.

Paul Laustsen, a Mac user and engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who attended the Monday keynote was impressed with the new iMac at first sight.

"It's very exciting. At first it looked like a lamp, but it's got great potential," he said. One prediction he made was that the piston-like neck that supports the flat-panel monitor will easily allow Apple to later replace the 15-inch display with a larger monitor. "It lends itself to an upgrade," he said.

With the release of the new iMac, Apple will ship all of its machines with its new Mac OS X 10.1 operating system as the default boot-up system, Jobs said. Users will be able to dual boot the Mac OS 9 operating system to run older applications.

"We believe the computer is going to become the center -- the digital hub," Jobs said, adding that its Mac computers would power that hub with new software for managing content such as digital photos, videos and music.

The keynote also featured a number of other anticipated announcements from Apple and its software partners. Graphics software maker Adobe Systems Inc. released new version upgrades to a collection of its software to run on the Mac OS X operating system. They upgrades are among the 2,500 native applications now shipping for the new operating system, Apple said.

One of Adobe's highlights Monday was a preview of its flagship application Photoshop 6.0, a program users have waited for since Version 10.1 of Mac OS X debuted. With more advanced photo-editing functions, the application for the first time will allow users to spell check a document.

Showing off the new software during the keynote, Adobe's Executive Vice President Shantanu Narayen took a jab at Microsoft Corp.'s Office for Mac OS X productivity software, which to date has been considered the "poster child" application for the new operating system.

"Given the demonstration that you've seen, Steve, I think we're the poster child application of OS X," Shantanu said.

Adobe also announced upgrades to Adobe GoLive 6.0 and Live Motion 2.0. Apple took the wraps of another software application for its digital hub line up called iPhoto, which allows users to edit, share and print digital photos all in one application. The software was endorsed in an on-stage video by famed Vanity Fair photographer Annie Leibovitz.

But easily stealing the show Monday was the newly designed iMac. The original, bubble-like iMac was an instant hit when it was unveiled in 1998. The colorful computers have been credited with saving Apple from the doldrums it had settled into during the mid-1990s. But over time, some analysts said the iMac's design had become stale and was in need of a fresh look to boost sales.

Details of the new iMac had been scarce leading up to the keynote, with Apple officials remaining tight-lipped on what users can expect the company to unveil at this week's Macworld.

The first pictures of the new iMac were published Monday, when Time's Canadian Web site, Time Canada, ran two photographs of the elusive revamped iMac. The print issue of Time features the stylish desktop on its cover this week.

The design of the new iMac is a radical departure from the previous version. Its base is a small, halved sphere that measures 26.4 centimeters in diameter. A flat-panel monitor is attached to the base using a jointed chrome neck that can be adjusted to position the monitor. The monitor itself is ringed by a translucent plastic "halo" while the rest of the case and the base is white plastic.

The new iMac, which is priced starting from $1,299, includes a raft of multimedia software applications and, in the top-of-the-range $1,799 model, Apple's Superdrive for burning CDs and DVDs. The iMac will ship with iDVD, which allows users to make DVD movies; iMovie, a video editing application; iPhoto, a digital photo editing tool; and iTunes, which lets users convert CD music into MP3 files and can synch with Apple's iPod portable MP3 music player, according to Apple.

Biotechnology firm Genentech Inc. was the first to preorder the new iMac, announcing Monday that it will buy 1,000 of the new computers. Jobs expects the iMac to appeal not only to corporate users, but to small business and home users who would make use of its "digital lifestyle" features.

Hans Haakman, systems manager at Kunstcentrum Delft, in Delft, Netherlands, which rents out art and has about 10 iMacs in use, plans to buy at least three new iMacs this year for use by the visitors of the Kunstcentrum, he said after watching Jobs' keynote in Amsterdam via satellite.

"Apple expects the high-end model to sell best, but I think it will be different because of the price," said Haakman, who values the iMac's design. "It nicely fits on a desk," he said.

Some Mac enthusiasts expect the new machine will reignite Apple sales.

"It has the potential to blow the market away," said Matthew Kimber, an Apple reseller from New South Wales, Australia, as he posed with a photo of the new computer. "Just look at that. To compare this to the old one -- it's revolutionary."