Recently, I've needed to look into buying a wireless router for a mission-critical system at work that will need to support quite a few simultaneous connections (potentially a few hundred laptops). One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be a dramatic difference between the max. simultaneous connections different routers can support; see this page for example - anything from 32 to 35,000!

Why is there this degree of difference? You'd have thought that if we know how to make routers that can handle thousands of connections, we wouldn't be making stuff that's limited to a pathetic 32 anymore. Is it a firmware thing? A hardware thing? Are low-end manufacturers purposely putting low arbitrary connection limits in so people can be "encouraged" to pay more for high-end routers?