You may also notice that, generally speaking, the $1200 computers are poorly designed and assembled.

Do you really want a Mac that is as shoddily put together as a Dell Inspiron? Maybe, but Apple doesn't want to go down that road. They want to continue to be thought of as a top-of-the-line manufacturer, and I can understand that, as much as I personally would like to be able to get a desktop Mac for less money than they want.