Apple's Macworld Finale Short on Fireworks

With more than 6 billion songs downloaded, iTunes remains a strong revenue stream for Apple, which faces stiff competition from the likes of Nokia (NOK Quote), Research In Motion(RIMM Quote), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote) and Acer in areas such as smartphones and notebooks.

Away from iTunes, Schiller took the wraps off the new version of the company's 17-inch MacBook Pro, which Apple is touting as the world's thinnest and lightest notebook of its size.

Priced at $2,799, the latest member of the MacBook family offers much longer battery life than its predecessors and competition, according to Schiller.

Apple also unveiled the latest versions of its iWork and iLife Mac software. These include new iPhoto software, which uses facial recognition to group pictures of the same person together. Schiller said iPhoto will integrate with Facebook and Flickr, and he explained how the software can work with Google(GOOG Quote) Maps and GPS geotagging to show the locations where photos were taken.

Schiller also unveiled an updated version of Apple's iMovie technology and an enhancement to the "Garageband" application, where celebrities such as Sting and Norah Jones show users how to play musical instruments.

Apple unveiled a collaborative version of its iWork software at Macworld, touting iWork.com as a way to share documents with other people online.

The firm's shares slipped 65 cents, or 0.7%, to $93.93 in afternoon trading.

Apple announced that Jobs would not be delivering the Macworld keynote last year. The CEO's health remains an obsession for both investors and the media, prompting a statement by the firm's CEO on Monday. Jobs, who was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004, promised to continue leading the company and allayed rumors that he was seriously ill.