Moody pointed out that the 24-inch model, which comes standard with a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo processor, a 250GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM, a FireWire 800 port in addition to two FireWire 400 ports and an Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics card with 128MB video RAM. Both the processor and the card can be upgraded, with the slightly faster 2.33GHz processor adding $250 to the bottom line.

"Not only is this a product high-end consumers will be attracted to, but they'll get performance and great screen real estate," he said. "All of these models are going to appeal to our customers. The $999 (entry-level price) is one of those magic price points and we're delivering great value and performance at that level. There's going to be people we reach with that iMac that we haven't been able to reach before. And this is the first time we've had the 20-inch (model) break the $1,500 price point."

Asked why Apple designed a larger iMac, Moody said: "More screen real estate is better. The more screen real estate you have, the more productive you can be."

Asked whether the revamped lineup of iMacs heralds any changes to the company's Cinema Displays, Moody declined to comment -- although he noted that prices on the company's LCD displays were reduced just last month.