In what is usually the shining star of the retailers' entire year, this holiday shopping season has many retailers predicting coal in their stockings. The credit crunch and soaring energy prices might yet catch up with consumers.

While initial Black Friday numbers out of the retail sector seemed promising, official November sales left much to be desired. Fifty-one percent of retailers missed projected November sales numbers. And we all know how the Street feels about missed numbers. Target got severely punished after missing its analyst-predicted mark. Shares gapped down more than 6 per cent while getting slapped with a nasty downgrade from Bank of America Securities.

2008 isn't looking to be a banner retail year, either. Following several years of full-scale expansion, many top retailers expect to hit the brakes on growth for next year. Wal-Mart announced earlier this year that it plans to pare square footage growth down to about 5 per cent, from an aggressive historical pace of 9 per cent. McDonalds also plans to build fewer Golden Arches in the US in 2008.

Meanwhile, in the midst of this "glass is half empty" retail mentality, one retailer is posting impressive sales and forecasting impressive growth for next year. While others are scaling back on new stores, this company expects to add more than 40 new stores this year -- and break into China. And while more than half of retailers are down in sales and the National Retail Federation is predicting a mere 4 per cent revenue gain in November and December (the worst since 2002), one retailer is betting on 31 per cent growth this quarter alone.

How? Quite simply: "They now produce some of the most-wanted products on the planet," as Maggie Gilliam, a retail consultant at Gilliam in New York, said.

Of course, I'm talking about Apple. The undisputable fact is, for another consecutive year they simply have the hottest products around. Apple's popular iPhone, as well as its newly introduced redesigned iPod Touch, have people ready to chuck their old iPods out the window.

Apple's recently introduced iPhone is in red-hot demand. It's a phone, a Web browser, an MP3 and video player, as well as an overall status symbol for the ultra-hip and tech savvy.

One of the iPhone's most talked about and popular features is its LCD touch screen that owners use to make their phone calls, text messages, watch videos and log onto the Internet.

But what makes this screen different than any other you'll find on a cellphone is that it actually senses the way you're holding the phone and changes the shape and aspect of the screen depending on which way you hold it.

So, if you turn it upside down, the picture flips along with the phone, allowing you to still be able to see a perfect display. Same goes for turning it sideways, backwards, flipping it up, down or all around� You get the picture -- literally.

To sum it up, there are still some winners in the retail sector right now, Apple being one of them. But if you don't want to pony up nearly $190 a share for AAPL, I've found a better way to play Apple's popularity� for around $15 a share.

Courtesy: www.taipanfinancialnews.com