I think you are both talking past each other. If I understand dean correctly, he isn't saying that Apple can't price a device aggressively, but rather that when faced with a choice of cutting corners to make a cheap device, or adding value to the product whilst maintaining price, they opt for the second choice.
To make things more concrete, where Dell might look at a Macbook Pro, and then figure that they can compete by using a plastic casing instead of unibody aluminium, thereby making their product $50 cheaper to make, so they can sell it for $50 less, Apple is more likely to try to compete by adding a thunderbolt interface, or introducing better screens that guarantee colour fidelity, or making a better OS, or whatever. That don't lower the price - have a look at the MacBook line, the prices have barely changed over 5 years, but the value of the models offered has increased massively.
To make things more concrete, where Dell might look at a Macbook Pro, and then figure that they can compete by using a plastic casing instead of unibody aluminium, thereby making their product $50 cheaper to make, so they can sell it for $50 less, Apple is more likely to try to compete by adding a thunderbolt interface, or introducing better screens that guarantee colour fidelity, or making a better OS, or whatever. That don't lower the price - have a look at the MacBook line, the prices have barely changed over 5 years, but the value of the models offered has increased massively.