I for one, have been waiting for news of the new i7's in the Mac world. Have been ready to replace our primary desktop for awhile. Our desktop replacement is not going to be a Mac without the i7.
As someone that's been into O/C'ing since '95, I have been trying to curb my interest in building a new system because I have come to like OS X. But, am not sure how much longer I'll hold out. Pushing that new 2.66 up to around 3.8 on air has me excited and almost giddy about the prospect. I can do it for well under $1500 if I stick it in my old Antec P160 case, add 6GB RAM and a HD 4870 x2 2GB video memory. It's becoming just too tempting.
There are more like me out there. Am not a fanboy of one or the other. I would still prefer my hardware of choice, that can run a good OS. The debacle of Vista caused a whole bunch of folks to jump ship and buy their first Macs. If Win 7 ends up as good as it's looking right now, those out there like me will forego the new iMac and Mac Pro in favor of building their own and sticking with XP or moving on to Win 7.
Granted, people like me will not make or break Apple's computer sales. But, if MS comes out with a good OS this time around, it will affect our advice to the friends and acquaintances that come asking for our help on buying a new system.
At the same time, would think that I'll remain a user of both OS's. Have no consideration, at least now, of getting rid of my MBP. The Win world would just be getting the first of my money since the intro of Vista. Maybe I can wait to see how the next few months unfold, maybe not.