What features do you want? No offense, but one of my pet peeves is people saying "We need a new version/system/product!" without saying why. Is there a specific problem you want fixed, a certain feature you want that Aperture 3 doesn't have, or just a change for the sake of change?
Okay... Here goes.
(And these may not be relevant for aperture 4, but maybe for v. 6)
The thing is, that many photographers and some ex-photographers (I include myself in this category) are feeling an immense pain with the whole step of post-production. Compared to the days of film, we take 10 times more frames and the workload of prost-processing a photo-shoot are becoming hideously arduous.
I specifically remember a wedding gig I had some years ago (the circumstances were challenging), which I'll use as example:
1 hr - discussions with bride and fiancée
1,5 hr - scouting the place, seeking the angles
1,25 hr - actual shooting
1,5 hr - image selection
29 hr - post processing (aperture and PS)
I admit it's an extreme example, but I regularly had to use 3 to 4 times the time on PP than on all other gig-related activities.
To be quite frank, a central reason for me to stop doing gigs was the amount of time spent on (basically) unbillable PP. I've even stopped shooting RAW.
So what would I (have) really needed?
1) A all-in-one software. Lightroom has PS around the corner, and in Aperture I regularly have to go into PS to do some final touch-ups (especially regarding "unwanted artefacts"). Apple should/could aim for a one-stop solution.
2) A "smart" solution. Say you import a gig into Aperture, aperture would start identifying the different settings (different lighting, different faces) and use some time to analyze the material and different subsections. With face recognition aperture could also suggest some automatic discards (lemons), shots with blur or OOF-problems. The remaining shots would then get a number (selectable) of automated settings (user-defined or automatic) treatments (preview-level), while at the same time trying to enhance the pictures, trying to keep the overall look&feel of the shoot in line with each other. Most of the processing here should be done in background.
I guess what I', trying to say is that I'd really appreciate a workflow, which would be based on:
1# import
2# automatic preselection
3# automatic application of settings
4# user selection of desired preset-set
5# user selection of images and touch-ups (in software)
6# export(s)
IMHO, the amount of time a photographer should spend actively tweaking an average image is no more than 20s. The computer could do a lot of the work for the photographer, but current software does not cater to this.
RGDS,