While we can call John an Apple fan, we cannot call him an Apple apologist. While a pro-Apple article, John, to my mind, gets it exactly right:

There’s no question that retailers sell tens of millions of cheap Windows laptops every year. But no one with a pair of eyes thinks such machines are of comparable quality to Apple MacBooks. Even without turning the machines on, anyone can see the difference in design and build quality. In fact, you don’t even need eyes — just pick them up and see which one squeaks. Apple is selling more MacBooks every quarter. Microsoft thinks it is sitting pretty because Best Buy has a 17-inch Dell for $650.

For all the buzz that the so-called “Laptop Hunters” ads are creating, Apple’s profits are up, while the rest of the industry’s are down. That can mean several things, but one thing it definitely does mean is that Apple is not being tangibly hurt by the plastic crap made by HP sold by Best Buy advertised by Microsoft.

UPDATE (via @gruber): There are excellent points to be had in the Hacker News comments to Gruber’s article.