As I understand it, that's only because consumers weren't amenable to paying the real price of the hardware up front. Much like video game consoles. If the manu

As I understand it, that's only because consumers weren't amenable to paying the real price of the hardware up front. Much like video game consoles. If the manufacturer didn't have the game market locked down, they would have to sell the consoles for several hundred dollars more, which strangles demand. The lock-in model is, in many cases, an effective way at reducing the front-loaded nature of captial expense. The lock-in is defended because if it vanishes halfway through the market play, the whole play fails.