One thing we know: Apple's (AAPL) iPhone is so massively popular that the network it officially runs on (AT&T's) often has a hard time keeping up. Densely-populated areas have problems with dropped calls and unreliable data services since so many iPhone users are choking the network. It got so bad that AT&T stopped selling the iPhone from its website this past weekend, seemingly trying to slow sales down because its network couldn't handle it.

So what happens when Apple releases the next, best thing? The blogosphere and tech press are totally psyched over the pending release of an Apple tablet or pad computer -- one that will "change the world" no less. But nobody is asking the question of usage problems. If an Apple tablet is announced in January and released shortly thereafter, are the wireless networks the device will run on be overwhelmed?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares have been pounded in the recent market downturn, falling from around $175 to close below $129 Wednesday. Although, at the same time, Apple has been selling its Mac PCs at a blistering pace as well as selling millions of iPhones. Although Apple's current quarter ends at the end of September, it seems like it is growing sales among almost its entire product line during one of the worst consumer economic times in recent memory.

Its share price, though, is definitely not being rewarded. Will this trend continue? Apple is known for continuing to have great sales performance while the markets it operates in falter, and this year has been no different. Even if the company reports better than expected results sometime next month for the quarter ending next week, the market probably won't prop its shares up much, similar to how the market treated the announcement of the second-generation iPhone 3G back in June. In fact, that moment marked the downward slide of Apple's shares.

Although Apple is reportedly canceling memory chip orders amid a possible downturn in MacBook Pro sales coming as consumers turn to lower-priced notebook PCs, this doesn't necessarily mean Apple sales will soon start plunging, although that is a possibility. In the latest quarter, Apple saw a 41% year-over-year increase in Mac sales while the overall PC market grew only 15%. Apple, though, is still continuing to polish itself even in this environment due to its excellent breadth of talked-about and well-designed and marketed products. I don't see that stopping anytime soon as long as the Cupertino brain trust is operating.