Yes, the MacBook's touch pad is significantly, significantly better than most other PC laptop touchpads. I don't need a mouse when using a MacBook. I can't use a PC laptop without a mouse.
I suspect its a combination of better hardware and better software (I bet Microsoft doesn't write the touchpad interpretation code, its done by the individual hardware makers and so will be total crap).
It's all in the drivers, interestingly. And Synaptics supplies both the Macbook trackpad and other touchpads. There's nothing to prevent them in putting the same features in their Windows drivers, but maybe Apple insists that they don't.
Apple just controls for the quality/experience they want to offer.
The various PC vendors have control over the hardware and software for the trackpads; they could make them good if they wanted to, or if they knew better. They just aren't "detail oriented" on a corporate scale.
I think it's something like 7 years since Apple's touchpads were made by Synaptics. They don't supply the touchpads in all Windows machines, though the non-Synaptics ones I've used are (in my judgement) consistently inferior.
(I worked at Synaptics until late 2006. It's possible that my information may be outdated.)
I don't think so. Over the last Х years I've tried using touchpads on Dell, Acer, Asus and other laptops (Apple's family included) with different hardware and software and came to a sad conclusion that there is no way I could use any laptop completely without a mouse, even though I try to avoid using it as much as I can even on a desktop. Touchpads feel like extremely slow and imprecise input method, a real distraction and obstacle in interaction with OS or app. So, I think that while something definitely may be in the drivers, there's another part in this problem where you have to decide which level of comfort do you agree to drop to when switching from a mouse to a touchpad/trackpad.
Well, my point was that Apple's trackpads are the same hardware as what's used in Windows laptops out there too, so any difference in usability and features (e.g. gestures) is driver-dependent and there is no technical reason why they would exist only on one platform.
For actual usage I definitely prefer a mouse or a trackpoint.
