Re:Perhaps Apple should begin licensing OS X (Score 1)

Similarly fully spec'd machines from Apple and Dell are around $1,000 apart:
Dell Precision T7400 vs. Apple Mac Pro:
2x Quad Core Xeon 3.2 Ghz
32 GB of RAM
4x 1 TB HDD
DVDRW drive
nVidia 1.5 GB Quadro 5600
No monitors
No other addons
3 year AppleCare or Dell 3 year 4 HR on-site 24x7
Dell: $17,231
Apple: $18,248

Yes, there is an Apple premium. Always has been, and always will be.

But honestly, only someone who has no concerns about final build cost buys extra memory and hard drives from Apple (or even Dell to be honest) since companies tend to charge some fairly heavy markups on those upgrades. As a note, both charged the same price for the Quadro, $2,850