When are these publications going to figure out that volume shipped vs Apple is a pointless milestone? I'm interested in margins and revenues, but not units shipped.
In that case Panasonic's Toughbooks would be the clear winner in the general-market space. Their low-end 'business rugged' laptops start at £1800 for an i5 spec... though with a three-year warranty.
Once you move into specialist fields such as mediical and defence there are vendors whose laptops have margins that would make Apple cry, but who 'earn' those through jumping through many many regulatory hoops. Dell played-around in that space in the late 2000s, their mil-cert laptops started around $5000 with standard Latitude innards.
They also earn it by knowing that those niches are willing to pay and normal computers can be problematic to an outright danger[1].
If you happen to have an employee that is a bit "rough" with their notebook and is a Windows user, a Panasonic Toughbook is a great buy. They are built like tanks and Panasonic knows their users.
Also, if you have a dust or grain dust[2] environment, you most definitely should buy medical computers. We have a carpentry area that needs computers and the sealed medical computers are perfect. I use http://www.cybernetman.com because I like the reps.
1) having a sealed computer that you can wipe down with Lysol is an amazing benefit for a hospital setting.
2) do not f around with normal computers in a grain dust environment unless you like fires and explosions. You want to take precautions to get proper clean airflow or use sealed computers.
Also as an ordinary person why would you be interested "margins and revenues"?
Having said that, decreasing volume, something which is now never-ending for Apple in the last few quarters, consecutively, is a marker for doom, or at least the end of life of the product line.
When you're selling less and less, you can't keep revenues up by just increasing the margin on each unit forever. It's unsustainable and unstable.
edit: early morning post needed clarity.