they stick to dedicated graphics cards and not this integrated video crap that PCs come with where they use system RAM. Talk about hamper a product. I've worked with several laptops and desktops now and when a co-worker asked which he should buy, I had to immediately tell him to get a machine that has dedicated video.

Doing otherwise, he might as well have bought a Celeron.

The ATI Control Displays preference panel/application is really nice. (Download it from ATI's web site).
If Apple or Nvidia come out with a similar application or preference pane, where you can control the graphic settings for specific applications and 3D attibutes, I would have no preference between the two chipmakers. They are similar to Intel and AMD where depending on what time you are talking about one or the other, one of them is marginally better.
My only reservation is with having only one vendor for something.

Intel will not force Apple to abandon ATI. That would be an anti-trust violation. INtel is already being sued by AMD for those types of actions, which INtel is denying that it has done.

Intel might make it hard for Apple to continue using ATI (by not licensing its technology to ATI), but that is another matter. Moreover, nothing is preventing Apple from using AMD chips (although at the moment it seems Apple picked the better processor line-up).