Actually, Pake, it pretty much was
Actually, Pake, it pretty much was. The Apple II was introduced back when computers were still primarily coming in kits (as the Apple I was), and kind of solidified form factor expectations of what everyone though a “personal computer” should be.
Of course it only solidified the computer itself, and didn’t bundle in the display, but the Apple IIc (pretty much their most popular model) did, and the Mac continued that trend. (So did the Lisa, if you want to count that.) The Commodore PET and some others may have predated the IIc and Mac by a few years, but they had almost no visibility, no recognition, and were pretty much just doing what you’d do with an Apple II and a few components stacked on each other, all in one case. (With a worse display, normally.) Apple at least brought design and thoughtful case design and layout into the process.
Then, of course, the all-in-one iMac is what turned Apple’s fortunes around from disaster in ‘98, and they’ve kept ONLY an all-in-one iMac as their volume consumer model since that time. Only recently have the main PC manufacturers decided to try their hand at that again after having failed with it before.
It’s rather a brand identity for Apple computers.