Apple DOES compete with the Windoze world; if they didn't, we wouldn't be seeing those great Mac/PC ads on television. And while it's true that the average user doesn't need the latest speed, the same is true of all those average folks going out and buying windows PCs too. In my view, Apple needs to be seen as competitive in terms of its "under the hood" technology, especially now that Win7 is showing signs of life as (the first) reasonably good implementation of windows in a long time.
Another point to consider is that the longer Apple sells its notebooks with last-gen technology at its current prices, the bigger its margins on those machines because the part vendors have reduced prices on their components, including the chips. So Apple is milking these margins for as long as it can. Good news for shareholders, not quite so good news for consumers who are paying a bit more than market for a notebook containing these components.
But Apple will update its notebooks, and probably within weeks, because it won't want to be perceived as behind the technology curve. It has seldom been first to market on the bleeding technical edge historically, and this seems no different to me. I would encourage everyone to calm down and wait a couple months before bashing Apple on this point.
But I don't think it's right to suggest that Apple shouldn't put the new chipsets and other good components in its notebooks within a reasonable time. Otherwise, they run some risk on market share and will be charging too much for the hardware they are delivering. Let's just give them some time before jumping on them.
Cheers