[seanmcdirmid]

I would never use my company provided laptop for non-work (moonlighting) purposes. All of my personal computers are macs running OS X; I'm afraid of buying a PC in my market (China), while the local Apple Store in contrast is a very dependable and safe (Apple is also better about servicing hardware bought out of country). If I was back in the states, I would feel better about buying a personal PC.

The problem with giving free hardware to customers is that you can't really identify who would add value with it, while employees are a better (but probably still not very good) heuristic.

You will always need to test your app on a real device it is intended for; virtual machines and simulators don't really account for the real device experience. For mobile/tablet apps, this means you'll need a decent device in that category.