According to an article over at Think Secret, Apple might be prepping an application called Photo Pro. Apparently this will be iPhoto on steroids, with built in RAW processing, high speed workflow etc. If it manages to retain and improve the photo management features of iPhoto, add IPTC editing and (as the article says) multiple versions of each RAW image's processing parameters this could well be a winner.
I'm really hoping that this will become a reality. With CoreImage as a backend this thing would totally rock and remove the need for having multiple programs/procedures (import, process, archive). It makes perfect sense. Perhaps I should take up praying or something...