If you're talking MSRP, you might have a point. But the difference between Apple laptops and PC laptops is that the PC market is a lot more competitive, and retailers have a lot more flexibility with their pricing. I don't know for certain that Apple has a Minimum Advertised Price or anything like that, but I sure as heck don't see any remarkable difference between the prices at Apple's store and those at the various online Apple resellers.

Here is a recent example of a Compaq Presario laptop with a 15" screen that was going for $640 (after a bunch of rebates) at BestBuy. I wouldn't call Compaq or Best Buy "Crazy Joe's Bait and Computers." Granted this was a pretty exceptional deal, but I regularly see sales and rebates that bring prices down about that low. I don't know anything about Mac vs. PC performance, so I don't know how a 2.4 GHz mobile Celeron compares to Apple's mobile G4, but for my purposes, the 2.4 Celery would be just fine.

Also, I wasn't really talking about spec for spec, I was talking about "I can get a new Apple laptop for X, and a new PC laptop for Y." will agree with you that Apple has been much more sensible about pricing in the last year or so, but I think there is still a significant price premium associated with the Macintosh brand.