Perhaps I am missing something but I see this as nothing more than a great way for MS to drive home their current ad campaign that Windows based PCs are much cheaper. Look at who they have heading up this new reltail division he is no joking matter.
Yes I think Macs are great computers but considering the state of the economy joe public will 'settle' for a pc that half the price with very similar specs.
While I agree in general, I have yet to find a PC with nearly identical specs that is half the price. You generally get what you pay for in PCs. Apple may be about 20% inflated over a comparable PC, but it's certainly not double the price.
Apple needs to drive home the point in their advertising that you don't get a Mercedes with Yugo money. The general public has a bad perception that computers cost $500 or less, and that's just not true if we're talking about state-of-the-art, modern components.
I think one major thing as worked well for Apple and that was Vista which meant a computer with the same specs didn't perform the same as one with OSX. Do I personally think the build and OS are worth it on the Mac, for sure, for now. Windows 7 is a real contender. I have been messing around with it now for a few months and its fast, stable, reliable and easy to get around in. All things Vista lacked and what people want so W7 will put snow leopard through its paces.
It all depends on how it's marketed. Windows 7 is a great release from Microsoft, no doubt - but what's the killer app? The killer app is that they "fixed" Vista. But how do you market that? If Apple were smart, they'd play up the fact that Microsoft finally fixed Vista, and for that you get to pay them yet again.
On technical merits alone, W7 is very much a refined version of Vista. There are no great technical leaps here. Snow Leopard is a different story. OpenCL, Grand Central and other, numerous technical innovations set SL apart from Leopard. Microsoft has yet to provide any avenue for developers to easily capitalize on multiprocessing capabilities of modern machines.
Personally I think its great, I want MS to force Apple to do better and offer more, ultimately we benefit the most from good competition between them.
Me too, but I think you give W7 way more credit than it deserves. If I wanted a more refined, stable and compatible version of Vista, I could always just go back to Windows XP (and save some resources to boot!).