In replacement of the keynote usually performed by Steve Jobs every year for the opening of Apple Expo, the company held a press conference today in Paris.

During the conference Steve Jobs provided some figures about Apple's sales, claimed that the Mac market was growing fast and that the company had reached 4.5% of the US PC market while worldwide market share is about 3%.

He also discussed its plans for the Intel switch and confirmed that the first Intel based Macs were on track for release by June 2006.

The iPod's halo effect was also dicussed. Apple's executives told that is was really difficult to quantify the effect.

Steve Jobs finally gave Apple's vision in terms of engineering. "At its core Apple has great engineering and confidence that it has the ability to take complex technology and make it easy for the end user." told the Apple's leader to the press.

A full coverage of the event is available on MacWorld.co.uk.

UPDATE: MacWorld.com provides additionnal comments from Steve Jobs.