Yahoo has this interesting article about how many people end up buying their own laptop or PDA for work as their company will not invest in this. I used to work at a start up that was very careful with their money. I often took my own laptop into work when I needed the integrated webcam and they were only willing to purchase PDAs for the 'important' executives. As the article states, some companies end up being penny wise but pound foolish as often the cost is far less than an employee's time. 

From a legal perspective this can be very sticky too. If you use your own equipment and you leave the company, with your equipment, what happens to the data on the equipment?

Real simple... My equipment my data.

Doug-Iowa:

Real simple... My equipment my data

I like this simple thought !

Because of HIPPA Regs and others: We DO NOT ALLOW "employee purchased" devices...we support Blackberry and we supply them, plain and simple.

Doug-Iowa:

Real simple... My equipment my data.

I guess that makes this post theirs then :) 

Not sure about globally but in the UK this is a fairly standard inclusion in most peoples work contracts.