Apple during the conference call discussing its record quarterly results this summer provided multiple hints of price drops on its products in the near future. When asked during a Q&A session about its prediction of lower gross margins for the fall, the company warned that products in the future will have lower margins and repeatedly emphasized cost as an issue. It stressed that it would provide "ever-increasing value" in its products and reiterated its beliefs that it will continue to make products at prices others "can't match."

The company provided no details about what these products would involve and alluded to an "abnormal" impact for the quarter ending in December.

Apple's discussions may support word of less expensive Macs that has grown louder over the past few weeks, including a redesigned MacBook and a price-dropped Mac mini, the latter of which has been seen in Google text ads carrying a 100-Euro price cut. A redesigned iMac has been previously rumored, but price cuts there are less likely if it uses fast but more expensive Core i7 processors instead of more economical Core 2 Duo chips.

Handheld devices aren't expected as the company refreshed all its iPods and isn't believed to be shipping its rumored tablet until early 2010.