As previously pointed out, Apple commands a premium price point because of it has worked hard to deliver premium brand experiences, from advertising to stores to the end user experience.
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I'm pretty sure can go back and find the "Apple is suppose to have prices out of line with the market" posts that similarly explained why there would not be a sub $100 ipod or a $99 iPhone.
Hmm, those both exist at this point at the Apple store. Likewise have been mentioned as necessary by Apple in these conference calls so that the market doesn't get umbrella pricing effect and Apple gets attacked from the bottom.
[ iPod is different because market share dominate, where on the computers where dominate, many years ago, but now have been pummeled into a minor share .... in part because did the umbrella pricing strategy. ]
Apple is doing something weird. There is a $500 gap between the Macbook and the top of this "can't build for that price range". It is almost as if they are holding it open so that some of their products don't overlap as opposed to could not come to market with a device in that range. Or just don't want to sell anything for less that $1,000 ( rounded $999 is a $1k).
The even bigger odd-ball is the MacBook Air. A quality, sub $999 version consumer line packaged equivalent would probably drop its sales precipitously. The $1,000 chasm between the MBA and netbooks is huge.
There are few "deliver customer values" aspects for this. Lots more with Apple only wanting to do a subset of the various markets. Or holding open a slot for a more expensive Touch/Phone. The latter is somewhat problematic when Apple is holding back Mac OS X computer sales to open door for iPhone OS sales.
The clear thing that Apple needs to do is not match netbooks but to match the consumer line ( above netbook and $1000 range) that the competitors have offerings in. The solitary Macbook is whacked. There is no engineering deliver blocker there other than zero effort on Apple's part.
(similar to letting the Mac mini run comatose for several years with some whacked constraints that don't really ad customer value. ]