They are expensive. But that is another MS-national socialist excuse. About as annoying as when people kept saying Mac had no right click when really they were just too dumb enough to figure it out.
The difference: Apple really does have a ridiculous markup and the other thing is a joke.
If you don't believe me, read this comic.

Maybe a focus on having a efficient computer that you love is more important than having something which has a CPU that on paper is a bigger number then your friends computer.
"Efficient"
My Macbook Pro from 2008 took 15 minutes to create a 420p video 5 minutes in length. Efficient is not a word I would use to describe apple computers.
"bigger on paper"
my cpu is amazing. in real life and on paper.