That helps my understanding, thanks.

I recall reading that the "tomato" firmware for wrt54 routers enabled ipv6 routing, but what i don't understand is how the new firmware gets around the embedded ipv4 mac...does it just spoof an ipv6 translation of the mac and be done with it that way? If the bulk of consumer devices (sold in the future) can be upgraded by rewriting part of the firmware, I thought more manufacturers than just Apple would be on their way to ipv6 for consumers. Then again, when I read router/switch specs, the "MAC address table" or similar is always listed as its own value/entity which leads me to believe it's not a trivial upgrade.

So I searched newegg.com and cdw.com for "ipv6" and with a few exceptions, only high end networking equipment results running ~$1k+ came up. Searching the web for "ipv6 hardware requirements" does not lead to much (I confess I do not want to read the whole spec.), but the article on wikipedia leads me to believe that home routers (and maybe managed switches) could be upgraded if resources such as RAM (and EEPROMs?) are sufficient and manufacturers so inclined.

Why do there seem to be so few end-user products which are or claim to be "ipv6 ready"?

Will the implementation of ipv6 end up providing every ISP account holder with a static IP, with IPv4/NAT behind it until all the old equipment dies over the next couple decades?