sorry, it’s not baking, it’s more like rendering out a sphere from that view and applying it as a reflection image ( basically a custom HDR map). It’s looks funny if you move the camera around, but for stills, it’s good.
also, for something like a studio, this image for example, you won’t even need to do that, you can just find a studio HDR map and reflection map it.
saves around 1/3 of my render times though.
I was using BI for product visualization the 2 last years (I’m a Industrial Design student, and I’m working in architecture visualization), and I also use YafaRay, LuxRender, Maxwell Render and in the last month, Cycles, in a very standard PC. Without glass materials (in this case BI has nothing to do, it’s slow and unrealistic), I always get fast results (between 15 - 30 minutes). In the other sade, I use Cycles for my last University project… with a studio set up, just four materials (a high gloss material for the object, an almost white diffuse for the studio, and two emitters) and rendering in my poor GPU (geForce 9500GT), I was rendering for 2 and a half hours to get the image clean as I want… and the last time that I use luxrender (for a coffemaker, the last year), the render time was… 30hs!!!
The secret it’s know how to set up correctly materials and lighs, but the main reason it’s that you don’t have to make complex calculations like GI is, because BI it’s no capable to make them! So, it’s simple, if your renderer couldn’t make it, then you fake it. Knowing how to use area lamps to simulate GI, you can get almost the same result, and you have more control over the effect, very important if you want to make some “artistic” or “narrative” intervention for your image. The disadvantage, of course, is that it’s harder to set up everything, in other biased renderers you get this kind of effects with adjust very few parameters, and in unbiased it’s almost “put, hit render and wait” (just in case, this is a caricature like situation)… but with a little bit of practice and inventiveness, there’s almost no limits 
If we have a medium gpu, probably I would give you the right. But it’s nor my case neither Jymmion.
@FreeMind, I answer you at same time I answer Optikz… just want to say: don’t let the tool kill the artist!!! Of course in a production context we choose the easiest and powerful tool… but that’s doesn’t means that there aren’t another ways to get the same results. Be a fanboy it’s never good in our work, it’s better keep the mind open to other options
PS: hope you can understand my english 