Apple selects Earthlink as iMac service provider

In a deal that could help EarthLink Network close in on the top spot among pure Internet service providers, Apple Computer has announced it has selected the company as the exclusive Internet Service Provider for its new iMac computers. The computers will ask users if they already have an ISP. If not, the iMacs will help users set up an EarthLink account and waive the normal $25 set-up fee. "You can unpack an iMac and be surfing the Internet within 10 minutes," said Mr Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO.

More than 20 per cent of EarthLink's 710,000 customers are Mac users, including EarthLink founder and chairman Mr Sky Dayton. "When I connected to the Internet for the first time years ago, I used a Macintosh," he said. EarthLink executives said they beat out America Online for exclusive position on the iMac. AOL declined to comment.

The deal with Apple could help EarthLink catch up with AT&T's WorldNet service, which has about 1.1 million Internet access customers. EarthLink won't say how many iMac users it thinks it can sign up, but analysts expect Apple to sell about 650,000 of the $1,299 iMacs by the end of the year. Apple already claims it has received more than 150,000 advance orders for the new computer.