Following a few unsuccessful attempts to run Mac OS X on Virtalbox on my laptop I decided to ditch Virtualbox and try VMware. Very smooth installation and worked on the first attempt:

I would like to point out, for the about the same price as a fully loaded Macbook Pro, I purchased over the past couple years the following equipment:

• 3 Desktop machines totalling 56GB Ram, 12 cores, and 3 TB storage (~$1,200)
• a Dell Ultrasharp U3011 monitor, 30" at 2560x1600 resolution (~$1,100)
• a quadcore laptop with 16 GB ram and 1TB storage ($900 last year)
• Das Keyboard Ultimate Model S ($120)

And I can still run XCode or the iPhone simulator when I need to.

The only things I miss about the Macbook are the nice screen (although no where near as nice as the U3011) and the trackpad. I worked as a developer at a Mac shop for a year and a half and it was fine, but economically it doesn't make sense for me to ever buy Apple hardware.