That is simply because an Apple that is equivalent to a $800 Dell or HP costs over $2500.
You may not know it, but there's a whole lot of those $1,000 Macs that are sold out there. And the Macs range up from there in varying increments -- so it doesn't just go from $1,000 and then to $2,500.
I love the Macs because of how well they're built. I had my laptop for several years while a relative of mine went through two laptops and then finally decided to give up on them and get a cheap desktop (the Windows variety...).
So, from what I've seen, those cheap Windows machines just don't hold up (that's from seeing some of my relatives machines, you see).
I still have three old Dells, the oldest from ‘98.
It even runs XP pretty well.
I just presently don’t have much use for them.