While I don't deny he has a point, average selling prices are not a very fair metric. Mac buyers more often care about computers, want a higher end one, and allocate a larger budget to their computer.
How much is it worth to you to have a machine that is beautiful to look at and which has as few extraneous cables as possible? For many people, the answer is "very little" and those are the people cheap Dell grey boxes are for.
On the other hand, if you want, say, a sub-$1000 laptop (just something for email and net browsing on the go), Apple can't help you at all, and in that regard price comparisons are kind of irrelevant: you can pick up a Dell laptop for $600 that probably wouldn't be enjoyable for heavy everyday work but is fine for the casual use most people intend on when they purchase a machine.
For 820$ you can get a Dell Inspiron 1525 with:
Intel Core 2 Duo @2.16GHz, 4GB ram, 15.4 inch display (1680x1050), and a 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM). (http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp)
As much as I prefer discrete graphics, the X3100 is actually quite good. Good enough to be the only video option for the Macbook Air, Macbook, Thinkpad X300 and Thinkpad 61s all well received laptops.
> On the other hand, if you want, say, a sub-$1000 laptop (just something for email and net browsing on the go), Apple can't help you at all
store.apple.com -> Refurbished Mac -> Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook -> $899.00, free shipping. Judging by the graphics chip and CPU, it's the latest revision, released in February.
How much is it worth to you to have a machine that comes in a white box (instead of the brown refurb one)? For most Mac users, the answer is "a couple hundred dollars" and those are the people new Macs are for.
I bought a $600 Dell Inspiron laptop ($350 rebate) and upgraded the memory, and battery to about $800 and have used it for everyday, heavy-at-times work (web design/development) for over a year now. Sure I could have spent $400-$600 more on something with a nicer case (XPS) but just because something is cheap, doesn't mean it can't be used to 'work' (and I didn't need to buy OSX just because I'm a 'designer')
Also, I spend the most money on machines for 'play', like my new Inspiron 1720.
To be honest, having a mac doesn't let you escape the too many cable curse. I have a cable for my mouse, one for my printer, one for my itouch, one for my cellphone (iphone = unwise in canada), one for my backup HD, one for my second monitor, one for the gigabit ethernet, one for the power and one for my headphones which equals 9 different cable outputs. I could go wireless(ish) w/ the HD, printer, mouse, headphones & network, but that compromises speed or quality in some way.
