Apple marketers have been playing a curious game this week, with a string of announcements  coinciding with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They have unveiled a new 1U rackserver, the Xserve, using two 3GHz quad-core Xeon processors, which they boast is "up to twice as fast" as its predecssor. Also a "fastest yet" Mac Pro using two 3.23GHz quad-core Xeon processors. And today it is announced that iTunes pricing will be standardised across Europe, promising to end within six months the much resented mark-up for the UK.

An Apple statement implied that this mark-up is the fault of record labels, which it says charge more for this country than elsewhere in Europe. The statement said: "Apple will reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level."

The turnaround will of course have nothing to do with placating Europe, which has a more questioning attitude towards Apple product lock-ins than the company's US fan base.

The announcements may have been timed to keep Apple in the news during CES. But they will also raise speculation about what there is left for Steve Jobs to announce in his keynote at next week's Apple love-in, Mac World 2008. Let's hope it's that much-rumoured Mac ultra-portable.