Technology prices

[Mark]

Sometimes it's hard to tell just how much the prices of things have come down, computers for example, for a long while PC's stayed around the £1,000 mark, the technology would get better, but the price stay the same, eventually as machines got more powerful than the average user actually needed, we've started to see prices come down.

About 6 years ago I paid £1,800 for a 600mhz laptop. I could go out and buy one several times more powerful now for £500 or less.

Perhaps more interesting is where the technology is static but the price changes, this can probably see some of the biggest reductions. About the same time I remember looking at DVD players and most were about the £500-£600 mark, the cheapest being £220. Of course now you can get DVD players for £15 or less.

Similarly with video recorders, our current recorder cost £300, wereas you'd feel done if you paid more than £30 now.

But what about things which aren't hi-tech which have plummeted in price?

[BDunnell]

But what about things which aren't hi-tech which have plummeted in price?

Like Rover 75s, you mean?

[airshifter]

Mark,

I've got computer equipment that as combined cost was thousands of dollars that's been thrown away or now used as paperweights.

On my first computer I purchased myself:

4 megs of memory was massive. I later put in 4 more at the excellent price of $40 a meg.

The 80 meg hard drive was considered overkill. A few years later I paid somewhere around $350 for a 435 meg drive.

The processor was a 486 SX-25, which was approximately $400 of the system price. The DX-33 systems were available, but out of the price range of most consumers.


On the low tech side, computers are still a good example. A good keyboard used to cost $60 or so, and printers were fairly expensive too. Especially if you wanted a dot matrix printer with a color option. :)

[schmenke]

I purchased my first computer about 20 years ago (no, really :mark: ) for about $2000.00CAD. This was a huge sum at the time, especially considering I was a uni student... However, I did manage to use all my negotiating skills to wrangle a dot-matrix printer (with a spare ribbon!) into the deal :s hock: .

The concept of "Mega" bytes did not exist at the time as we were still living in the dark ages where "kilo" ruled the day.
Processor speed was a whopping 80-86! Hard drive? What's a hard drive? Following a 20-minute boot-up applications were executed by inserting one, and often times two, 5.25in floppy disks.
The hefty purchase price did include the optional massive 13" screen with beautifully-sharp orange-on-black text in pure monochrome resolution.

Ah, I now reminisce on that wonderful day following my purchase, when I boasted to my classmates about my new technological purchase... I remember clearly the "oohs" and "aahs" of envy as they looked up from their Commodres and Ataris with rapt fascination…

[jim mcglinchey]

Sometimes it's hard to tell just how much the prices of things have come down

But what about things which aren't hi-tech which have plummeted in price?

Power tools have come down in price alot, I think its competition from China. I recently bought a 9" angle grinder for £80 that would ve been twice that a few years ago, and an electric chainsaw for £54 that made short work of a few tons of logs, and is still going great.