After nailing its third-quarter earnings last night, Apple left investors with a funny taste: The company issued a surprisingly weak outlook for its fourth-quarter revenues and gross margin, and said margins would be even thinner next fiscal year. Shares tumbled 10%.

It's hard to imagine that people are simply going to stop buying Macs and iPods. So what is Apple hinting at? New products, no doubt. But also, we think, slashing prices to rapidly grow market share.

First, the specifics: After reporting $7.46 billion in Q3 revenue -- 38% year-over-year growth, Apple guided to $7.8 billion of Q4 revenue -- just 26% year-over-year growth. Finance chief Peter Oppenheimer said he expects Q4 margins around 31.5%, down from 34.8% last quarter, and down from 33.6% during Q4 2007. He also said margins would continue to fall to around 30% in fiscal 2009, which begins in October.

But Apple's Mac business is firing on all cylinders, the iPhone 3G is in short supply, and even the iPod is selling better than expected. So what could cause that drop? New toys, of course, which re