Tom Nash, managing partner of MYOB US Inc., in Rockaway, N.J., a developer of business and accounting software, said Apple provided MYOB with seed units early enough that the company had plenty of time to test its software on Intel Macs.

Apple provided the transition kits to developers for $999 on the condition that they be returned, but the Mac maker said this week it will let developers exchange their test systems for new Intel-based iMacs, free of charge, enabling them to test their software on the final product.

Nash, who said that Rosetta runs MYOB's AccountEdge software flawlessly, welcomed the faster pace of the transition as his company gears up to offer a native release for Intel.

"We're kind of ready for it anyway," Nash said. "If anything, it just presses the issue for having a universal binary."

The new Macs feature Intel's Core Duo processor. A fresh crop of iMacs will ship immediately, while Apple's first Intel-based laptop, the MacBook Pro, will ship in February. All of Apple's product lines will make the switch by the end of this year, Jobs said.

Will the new "Mactel" machines run Mac OS X, Windows and Linux? Read more here.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., did not offer developers advance notice that Intel-based Macs would ship this week, in keeping with the company's tradition of secrecy, Jobs said in his keynote address.

"We like a good secret as much as the next person," Jobs said.

But some developers were not surprised by the move.

At Now Software Inc., a Columbus, Ohio, developer of Mac and Windows calendar and contact management software, employees conducted an office pool to predict how soon after the new year Apple would announce Intel-based systems. The latest prediction was March 2006; the earliest, submitted by Director of Marketing Randal T. Murray, was "zero to two weeks" into 2006.

"We were not surprised at all," Murray said.

This article was originally published on eWEEK.com.