From MacBooks to many (most?) PCs they're using Synaptics chips, which implement hardware multitouch. It's impressive how PC manufacturers are able to absolutely screw up something as simple as two finger scrolling, which is in most part implemented in hardware (the remainder is tweaking a bunch of parameters). How many times have I encountered unusable trackpads under Windows, which only required a little synctl prod under Linux... It talks at length about the carelessness of manufacturers.
FWIW only Apple trackpads made me drop lugging a mouse around. This big-ass, ice-like sliding, smooth surface is a wonder to work on for hours. It seems PC manufacturers conspire to make the smallest, most post-10-min-of-use grinding surface ever: not only the size makes it a pain to aim, having to fight against the surface just kills it.
From MacBooks to many (most?) PCs they're using Synaptics chips
Don't know about PCs, but the current and last gen of MacBook Airs uses the Broadcom bcm5974 touchpad controller, and I believe the MBPs do as well. The Linux "synaptics" driver drives a lot more than just Synaptics chipsets these days.
That's the problem: in many recent machines ASUS has used Elantech touchpads to save money. These are are absolutely terrible: they don't even have pressure sensitivity, let alone proper multi-touch.
I'd say it is entirely Apple's Execution. Someone used this machine before they pushed it out the door. Someone had to have gone, "this trackpad is just awful!" And yet, nothing changed about it, and they released it. It's hard for me to see another brand capturing such equity and such positive reputation when this happens over and over again. If there's a will, there's a way around the patents, etc.
