Most that engineering money is someone else's. Apple hasn't been designing its own machines since the x86 switch, really; they contracted their laptop manufacturing to the Big 3 (4?) laptop makes like everyone else. I remember the announcement when Asustek won the contract for one of the laptop lines (I think it was the MacBook) back when Apple launched its first generation x86 laptops.
Odds are, they're headed in either the same direction with their PC line, or they're finally going to give it up altogether and start finding partners to OEM the OS. They'd have a HUGE leg up at getting into datacenters that way -- contracting companies like RackSaver, Boxx, and other similar vendors (which does, in spite of recent news, still include Dell) would help enormously with that. It's already at a point where other than the pretty case and the OS, the mac is just another PC, and I would argue that the part that matters for the non-mobile PC's isn't the hardware or the pretty case.
Are you confusing construction contracts with the actual design? Because they seem to take real pride in the design of their machines. For reference, check all the videos they made of their aluminum manufacturing process for the MacBook Pro. Like almost every PC maker they contract out the manufacture, but the design is still theirs.
Nope, I'm not confusing them at all. I should have been clearer though, I was referring to the hardware inside.
Apple does the industrial design, and then solicits RFP's to get the system board. The laptop OEM builds the motherboards and all that, and I'm guessing that they deliver the internals to Apple, rather than fully-assembled machines, so that they do the final integration and burn-in testing and that sort of thing.
Odds are, they're headed in either the same direction with their PC line, or they're finally going to give it up altogether and start finding partners to OEM the OS. They'd have a HUGE leg up at getting into datacenters that way -- contracting companies like RackSaver, Boxx, and other similar vendors (which does, in spite of recent news, still include Dell) would help enormously with that. It's already at a point where other than the pretty case and the OS, the mac is just another PC, and I would argue that the part that matters for the non-mobile PC's isn't the hardware or the pretty case.