On the credenza opposite is another jumbled nest of wires for recharging mobile phones, cameras, netbooks, MP3 players and other portable gizmos.

People privy to the company's strategy say Apple is working on new iPhone models and a portable device that is smaller than its current laptop computers but bigger than the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The problem is that a big screen will use more power (shortening battery life) and be much less portable than a small screen, so netbooks will tend to have smaller screens than notebooks.