Apple Computer plans to announce Monday that they will be switching its computers to Intel’s microprocessors. The company plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said.

The announcement is expected Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, at which Chief Executive Steve Jobs is giving the keynote speech. However, IBM, Intel and Apple declined to comment for this story at this point of time.

Previously, Apple openly criticized IBM for chip delivery problems, though Big Blue said it fixed the issue. More recent concerns, which helped spur the Intel deal, included tension between Apple’s desire for a wide variety of PowerPC processors and IBM’s concerns about the profitability of a low-volume business, according to one source familiar with the partnership.

One advantage Apple has this time is the open-source FreeBSD operating system, of which Mac OS X is a variant, already runs on x86 chips such as Intel’s Pentium. In other words, Mac OS X could easily run on x86 chips.