On the AIO side, there are plenty of desktops from Dell and Lenovo that compete quite well.
I'm really sick of how every tiniest bit of Apple news is upvoted to the front page. When did a thousand fanboys join HN? I thought this forum was supposed to be about hacking, not hipster products made in Chinese sweatshops.
[1]: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-11-26/news...
Thinkpad used to be the best laptops on the market, and in many ways they're still kinda like the old thinkpads. But Apple raised the bar and Lenovo didn't bother following the bar up. I've actually found that some of the higher-end Dell devices are the best at being "apple for Win32 users" but the problem is nobody wants to trust Dell because they make so much utter crap.
Sure, it's not pretty and isn't unibody, but that doesn't mean the build quality is uncomparable if you're looking at it from a "ruggedness" perspective.
Disclaimer: I owned and used a 13" unibody macbook pro for 3 years.
When the plastic latches break off, will my laptop stay closed? No? Then it's not comparable.
When the slider for the latches breaks off, can I still easily and comfortably open my laptop? No? Then it's not comparable.
My thinkpad doesn't have mechanical latches for anything -- not even a wifi enable/disable switch. I don't know about the entire series of thinkpads. The lid closes and opens smoothly, no latching mechanism -- and stays in the position you leave it in. It's just as smooth if not smoother than my old 2009 MBP.
On the subject of the stigma with 'plastic' cases -- we are not talking about cheap plastic here. The bottom of the laptop is metal of some kind. Same with the edges. The top of the lid is some sort of rubberized metal. The palm rests/speaker area is the only plastic I can find, and it has a similar texture and "solid feel" to the stuff I find on my prosumer DSLR -- something also designed to be rugged.
Because plastic breaks easily. Aluminum is far more durable. I've had no trouble at all with my PowerBook and MacBook Pro cases breaking or even substantially degrading, but every plastic laptop I've ever used has looked like it was hit by a bomb inside a year.
> My thinkpad doesn't have mechanical latches for anything
Lenovo's website clearly shows mechanical latches on Thinkpads, e.g.:
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWebImages/SubSeries/gallery/...
> we are not talking about cheap plastic here
"Cheap plastic" is redundant.
> the stuff I find on my prosumer DSLR
I've been unimpressed with the "ruggedness" of my Pentax SLR and DSLR (the latter a K-5 II). I've been similarly unimpressed with the ruggedness of my father's Canon DSLRs.
Also, what system is it running? For me, one of the main advantages of owning a mac is the OS - nice, slick, fast, *NIX (hence good for developers), without all the configuration hassle of Linux.
And you didn't say why you suppose more developers use Linux than OS X. My experience is the exact opposite.
They may need a particular flavor of Linux to test on, but those are typically server builds anyway, so not great for everyday computing. That's what solutions like Vagrant or cheap cloud servers are for.
If they offered the same memory and storage options, it would be a lot more attractive.
Also, trackpad still sucks compared to Apple's.
And the price really should be lower given that you get less value out of the box.
EDIT: Yes, I am referring to the Pixel here.
If I want to buy a solid all-in-one device with a minimally usable on-board videocard so I could fire up the occasional game (not a hardcore gaming rig but keeping lighter fare an option) then the competitors are quite close to Apple in cost.
It's the same in laptops - while geeks argue about performance, Apple's devices have build-quality that blows everything else out of the water. If you start looking at similarly-constructed competitors, Apple's prices don't seem crazy at all.