By "developer" they really mean "newbie to-be developer". Otherwise I don't understand what's with all the emphasis on software rather than hardware, as if an experienced developer wouldn't already have a preferred developing enviroment and wouldn't already know how to set it up.
And the price tag is outrageous even from the perspective of a to-be developer that values having everything setup before hand.
Right on about the price. I recently picked up a MacBook, for a good deal less than $1500, and while it doesn't have an SSD drive, the rest of the specs beat out the Dell.
Of course, now I'm just sitting on the couch with my little Acer netbook running Ubuntu. Getting a newer, slightly larger keyboard netbook would have put me in driver hell, thus, the Mac.
And the price tag is outrageous even from the perspective of a to-be developer that values having everything setup before hand.