Apple would be foolish to believe this. A lot of the MBP's "sex appeal" is the fact that it is so widely used among developers and creatives. Similar to professional athletes all using one brand of tennis shoe. The effect is that the masses will see it as the top quality product and want to buy it. If everyone shows up at conferences next year with Thinkpads (although I wouldn't count on it) they might start noticing.
On the other hand, Ballmer was perhaps cartoonish but not idiotic when he trampled around the stage yelling "Developers!". Software developers are hugely important, and should be to Apple. It's trite but worth repeating: no one wants to use an operating system. People want to use the software that runs on the operating system.
You know what all my graphic designer friends are losing their shit over? The new Microsoft Surface Studio.
The excitement my visual artist and graphic artist friends have for the Studio and Dial should terrify Apple. But Apple seems to have forgotten who their influencers are.
A good friend is a videographer who uses everything apple. He's seriously concerned by the lack of ports.
I run an online business, write and make videos. I'm also concerned by the lack of ports and by the lack of a consistent set of keys on the touchbar.
Neither of us are thinking of switching, but we're in "wait and see". I bought a macbook pro for a project last year, and was planning to upgrade when the new model came out. Haven't - the new one doesn't seem compelling.
And people have bought macs and iphones due to my influence. Apple is foolish to ignore the professional demographic.
People who care about how it looks won't be getting thinkpads, but dell's xps 13, or lenovo's yoga line.