What's Apple's top-secret next trick?

Rumours buzzed this week when it was revealed Apple had shot a commercial for a mystery new product. Of course, there was tight security on the film set.

"Because the product they were advertising hadn't been released, members of the group didn't release any information, or allow any photographs," a local report claims.

The ad was shot at a 1940s-style Californian diner restaurant called Jax on the Tracks, chosen by a location scout.

The owner of Jax on the Tracks Bud Haley said, to the Sierra Sun: "Apple found us, they're trying to show us as a hip and cool spot for the 20-something crowd."

Who knows what the new product might be? It's hard to imagine a new iMac would be pictured being used in a diner, so something portable is most people's guess. 9to5 Mac reckons it must be for a new iPod.

Apple's still humming from its last-quarter earnings reports. Apple's stock started the year at around US$85 per share and has risen steadily to about US$165.

One way or another, and completely opposite to most recessionary expectations, Apple has retained the ability - and cash - to keep on innovating. Macworld says that Apple plays almost exclusively in the high end of the handset and computer markets, so that despite the low percentages of Apple use worldwide, this doesn't matter much. Apple's stake-hold in the high end translates to mighty profits.

"In the handset industry, for instance, Apple commands nearly a third of all profits while being only the fifth largest vendor."

Fifth largest vendor? Apple's only even been in this market a couple of years.

Apple has created a 'smartphone ecosystem' with iPhone which is going to be hard to beat. Once Apple sorts out the developer relationship (a work taken seriously and in progress), Apple's iPhone ecosystem will become even stronger - and I expect other Apple products to become part of it, one way or another, in future.

Apple's smartphone success is mirrored in the PC market. Apple's longer-term position in the PC industry has Apple enjoying an estimated 25 per cent of industry profits despite capturing only 6 per cent of industry revenues.

But I get sick of people telling me Apple is successful only because it's 'good at marketing'. If you market rubbish very well, sooner or later the fact that it's rubbish will sink in.

Apple is successful because it makes great products that deliver good bang for the dollar.

As Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner says: "Apple's pricing has been perpetually misrepresented and misunderstood over the years."

He maintains the iMac, for instance, matches up favourably against Dell and HP's All-in-Ones on a price-to-performance basis, and he posted the charts to prove it.

As a Mac convert commenter on the CIO site linked above says, "Two areas few people mention when comparing PCs and Apple computers: productivity improvement and total cost of ownership."

Apple has really done well in the laptop stakes, producing fast, slick, rugged models that can handle powerhouse applications like Final Cut without flinching.

The top-end Mac Pro line got well-refreshed not that long ago. Considering Apple often announces new products in September, the advertisement filming mentioned above can't help fuelling speculation.

Will it be a new camera-equipped iPod? A netbook/touchpad/tablet? Or the long-expected next-gen iMac?

I'm still keen on a new iMac. If games matter more to Apple than ever before, as this 9to5 Mac posting claims, an iMac is the obvious platform and the current line really needs a refresh - bigger drives and more processing power (Quad Core?).

I've been working with iMovie, GarageBand, Final Cut and Logic a lot recently, partly to learn how to use them well, partly to help out some friends and partly because hell, it's loads of fun! I'm amazed I can do this work on laptops, particularly the latest models, which are awesome. For example, I knocked a music video together  with two others using some unsynched movie clips shot on a digital SLR just using iMovie '09.

Remember, iMovie comes on all new Macs. It's right there in your applications folder. The YouTube version linked above is sampled down, of course, but the original is in gorgeous, sharp hi-def.

Interestingly, this work has brought me into contact with PC users. They've been shocked at the great build quality of the Apple hardware, the simplicity of design, the quality of the output and the capabilities of the software - things I have taken for granted, as a Mac user, for 20 years.

You can't beat simple, elegant, durable design. In these constrained times, quality seems more important, not less. More valued. Anyone walking into a Mac reseller will see this instantly. And seeing Macs alongside PCs in JB HiFi and Dick Smith, for example, two things stand out: the Macs look way cooler, and the PCs are way cheaper.

Unfortunately, they look it.

- Mark Webster mac.nz