yeah so cliche.. someone asks you something about macs and it instantly turns into a "Mac sucks olol no mac rules omgz PC are better no no Linux" thing.

well from those 2 systems MacBook Pro would run it better.
but as you said, if the iMac and the MacBook would have had similar spec probably the iMac would perform better, haven't tried though.
also I'm using a Mac Book Pro as well (not the one you have written but the 15" one and I don't have any problems with Maya. well I haven't been using Maya for a long time but noone I know that uses a Mac to run Maya experiences problems.)

and well would it be more stable on a PC or a Mac? for instance I have both a desktop PC and a MacBook Pro. and I only have Maya on the laptop. because I didn't see any need to have it on PC as well since it performs pretty fine on the Mac.

@gster
MacBook Pro is the laptop and iMac is the desktop so no.

@ dave
Man was that post meant to be sarcastic? I hope it was.
when I first bought a Mac (had used PC for a long time wasnt used to Macs at all) it took me approximately 2 days to get used to closing programs (not minimizing) by using either apple&Q or using the dock.

@Neostrider
What are you talking about ? You can force quit programs just like on a PC, either from the dock or from the apple menu-> force quit.

These comments seem to me as if they are coming from people that don't actually have a lot of experience with Macs.

and stickyhead, if your main purpose will be using Maya perhaps you could consider a Linux. but if not a Mac would work just fine