"The features of electronics keep going up while the prices keep coming down - that is an empirical fact that refutes your argument."WRONGCheck and see how much the DROID is going for today in your area. Now wait a year and see how much the same model is going for. The phone will be almost the exact same hardware model, probably with some software fixes, but for MUCH cheaper. Will it be cheaper in a year's time because the overstuffed it with features? No, it will be cheaper because of the fact that after the initial first to market buyers are burned through, they have to lower the price to get more of a market share for the device. If you don't believe me, look at the iphone already. When it first came out, huge price tag. Now, the price tag isn't so big. (for the phone, not the service)As for IBM, or any other company with a board that has half a brain, financing their customer's purchases, not so much. Most larger companies that offer financing offer it from a bank through their company. I've been dealing with company's such as DELL, HP, IBM, etc for almost 15 years purchasing hardware and software for company's that I work for, read the fine print in that finance agreement. A company personally financing their customer purchases would take way too much capital and tie it up, not allowing for the advancement of the company or research without the company having to be financed via a third party.