because now you can buy a computer "just to see" if something will work out. I'd never blow a couple grand on a machine just to be the dvd player/stereo. But $500 isn't so bad.
I've got an old B&W G3 server I picked up on ebay to be a file server - its got my cvs repository on it and all the laptops isync all the keychains and user prefs/software licenses and user data files to it. It cost me $350. One of these days I'll add a blog to it.
I'd never have one of those if I had to pay a couple grand for it though.