While I totally agree with everyone, and would LOVE to see the new mb(p) released, unfortunetly, I would have to say that apple still holds the competitive advantage in this case (IMO off course). Reason being this: I am a fairly new apple user (just under 1.5 years) who would love the specs that all those other machines have, not to mention the great price on them. However even if I was given a choice (which I just had as I bought my mb), unfortunetly OSX is what FORCED me to chose apple. I'm sorry, but yes the macs look nice, ect. but what keeps me here is the crap that I dont have to deal with in Windows. Its sad to say, but even if they were selling widows based computers for dirt cheap, I would still have to consider paying the extra $ (this coming from a student).
That said, it would be great if the prices for them were the same, as they would have more converts... however, its a typical case of supply and demand. Apple is already at its capacity (as shown with the crazy wait times for a new machine), and its simply a case of our commercial economic system working how Adam Smith dreamed.