I agree. IoC appears to replace factories.
Groboclown hits the nail on the head with his discussion about IoC.
Groboclown’s Weblog
This is precisely how I view IoC also! I’m just surprised to see someone else explain it in this way. I only wish I was allowed to use IoC in my environment, because each time I do a MyInterface object = new MyInterfaceImpl() I think that using IoC would be so much cleaner.