This is the week the new MacBook Pro is finally coming out.

Apple's first laptop computer to feature an Intel processor hits the stores, both physical and online.

The company has been basking in the glow of good fortune lately, amid brisk sales of its products even amid a major shift in its machines' core infrastructure, moving to Intel which was something unthinkable and anathema to any Mac faithful only a couple years back. Yet the Steve Jobs magic continues to roll, including the iMac G5's introduction last month-- the company's first Intel-based desktop computer-- which was actually over six months ahead of schedule.

Apple has continually suffered from shortfalls in supply for microprocessors, and its chronically low market share-- something that actually grew to 4% in the U.S. last year-- was attributed largely to a dearth in supply rather than that of demand.

Its shift to Intel's chips not only make for what Jobs conceded to be better performance, but also possibly better prices, and most important of all-- better availability and supply. The latter being the core of recent chatter about how Apple finally resolved the main bottleneck to its unhampered growth, and finally putting a chink in the armor of the Microsoft beast. The MacBook Pro (See earlier piece here.) is yet another projectile sent its way.

With iPods selling like pancakes well, iPods, and being attributed to helping boost sales of Macs, not only has Apple cornered the digital music market but its move to Intel could finally herald a new era of growth unseen since the company's founding (as if it hadn't already).

MacBook Pro units have a range starting at $2,000 ($1,999 to be exact) for the 1.83GHz-chip based unit to $2,500 for the 2.0GHz version. The aluminum-encased machines will come with built-in iSight video cameras for video conferencing, among other goodies.