In this new world, Apple no longer has to compete on specs and features, nor does it want to. There is no Mac vs. PC here -- only "the future" versus "the past." It won't be a debate about displays, memory, wireless options -- it will be a debate about the quality of the experience. Apple is not just eschewing the spec conversation in favor of a different conversation -- it's rendering those former conversations useless.
While I wouldn't go so far as to render the conversation useless, I do think that the new world is about the ecosystem and the aesthetic experience as much as it is the technology itself. The thing is, Apple's been doing that for years.