The reason why Apple is dominating isn't just due to one thing; it's the chip, the bus, the unified memory, it's complete vertical integration from bottom to the top and they don't need anyone else in between. Windows pc's can't compete at this level, they don't have the chip, the motherboard (some do make their own), nor the os or the software on top. Well to be fair they don't build their own screen and probably some other bits, but they are so large/important when Apple says "Jump" even Samsung goes "how high?"
Look at the trackpad for example, I cannot use any other trackpad anymore as they're all "diving board" style and it's a pain to use (none of them "click" at the top). I think Lenovo or Dell has been experimenting with a "force touch" or whatever they call it, but even on this new macbook neo that is selling for $500, the trackpad beats anything else in its class.
Then look at the keyboard, a lot of cheaper laptops collapse in the middle of the keyboard when you're pressing on them, even the cheap macbook neo is solid like a rock. And of course the windoze machines are made of cheap plastic.
As for performance, the benchmarks consistently have m chips dominating them all. Occasionally you find a specific benchmark where latest intel chip is doing better (slightly) or in graphics with a discrete card, but these machines, as a whole for desktop use (including video production, office work, software development etc) are blistering fast, dead quiet, and run forever on a charge. Only way I can tell I have a stray process running at 100% usage is when my palms heat up, normally it runs cool to the touch. It has a fan, according to the specs, I've never heard it come on. That alone is something that is extremely rare in a high performance computing laptop. I won't say no other machine can do that, but I certainly am not aware of any.
I was never an apple guy until I was given my 16" macbook pro for work. $3400-ish CAD laptop so it wasn't cheap, but one of my co-workers has the "air" for half the price and we don't find much difference in day to day.
So basically what I'm trying to say.... in every aspect of these macbooks (or mac mini), they either hold their own or dominate vs the competition at that price. Build quality, battery life, screen, trackpad, keyboard, speakers, microphone (two often very overlooked bits in windows land) performance, quiet operation, osx (yes, not linux but 100 times better than windows)... add it all up, it's the "total package". Nobody is beating these machines when you look at the total package, all the windows machines compromise in spots, but the apple machines have no compromise other than cost if you spec them out very high. One could argue "upgradability", but like 99% of laptops are never opened up anyway.
You DO realize that 2nd line there, I was agreeing with you, right? LOL!
But, as I said, they are still different architectures (ARM vs x86), so from a CPU perspective, just like back in the day with the PowerPC CPU's vs Intel/AMD, direct comparisons are complicated and most stuff is written for x86 still. Do you remember
Windows NT for PowerPC?
From a complete platform perspective, in terms of bang for buck, as you've expounded on, they are a offering something that, in Windows land, there isn't a direct peer product for in terms of bringing all those things together: performance, battery, build quality, features, price.
What you didn't address, and I was hoping you would, are the Snapdragon offerings, which of course are also ARM-based. Just like with Android vs iPhone, with the push to take the smartphone/tablet architecture into the laptop space, I think logically, this is where the next "battle" will be. Not sure if you've touched an HP Probook recently, but:
- aluminum chassis
- solid touchpad
- no keyboard deflection (keyboard is like a Mac, upper aluminum chassis half has the keyboard adhered to it from the bottom)
- good speakers/mic
As I mentioned, the Snapdragon ones behave very similarly to the Macbook ones (which they should, given both are ARM).
I'm always ordering new hardware at work to test. There are two Air's, one M4 and one M5, an M1 was retired for the M5. The staff that have them love them for the reasons you and I agree they should. For the Windows folks, feedback on both the Lenovo and HP Snapdragon offerings are good (battery life is phenomenal for example), but then so is the feedback on the most recent AMD Ryzen and Intel offerings, though battery life isn't as good, and there is definitely fan noise. End users are less critical than we are, generally.
Right now, there's a price premium for the ARM-based PC laptops, compared to say an Air (what a reversal eh?, lol) but I suspect that this is where a lot of future growth will take place, or should. Everything that's "fighting it out" in the smartphone space translates here (Galaxy/pixel vs iPhone) and so we are naturally going to see the Qualcomm CPU's advance. Ultimately, this SHOULD translate into a better slate of more capable products for end users, and that's good for everyone.
) but I'm mainly thinking of their macbooks and minis.