Re: Factors impacting computer prices

'Torben "Ægidius" Mogensen" wrote:
How can you talk about a price drop, when you paid 200 pounds more for
your new computer than you paid for your first? O.K., inflation
etc. probably makes 580 pounds in 2008 a lower price than 380 pounds
in 1980, but not by all that much.

So, rather than talking about falling prices, you should talk about
getting more for your money. A large part of this is, indeed,
increased component integration, but volume of production is also
higher, and more automation is used to fabricate things like disk
drives etc., so a disk drive now costs less than a tape recorder then.
A tape recorder has as many moving parts as a disk drive, the
difference is mainly precision, which is helped by machine assembly.
_____

Where were you spending your money in 1980?

Because of inflation, 380 UK pounds in 1980 equals close to 1200 UK pounds in 2008. US inflation since 1980 has been very close to the UK cumulative inflation, just above 300 %. In 1981 an Apple //e cost $3000 US ( $9000 US in 2008 dollars). Compare that to what $600 US in 2008 dollars can buy today. So not only is the performance : price ratio much greater, the absolute price is much lower. It is correct, concerning computer systems, at least, to judge the absolute price to be lower AND the performance : price ratio to be higher.

Phil Weldon



"Torben "Ægidius" Mogensen" <torbenm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:7zej7vn790.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
kenney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

I bought my first computer around 1980 (Video Genie). It came with 16K
of memory and used a cassette for storage. It also used a TV for
display. I paid IIRC something in the region of 380 pounds sterling for
it. The computer I bought last year came with 512MB a hard disk and a
17 inch display and cost me around 580 pounds.

What struck me when comparing the technical manual for the Video Genie
compared with the board layout for this one was the number of discrete
components and the board area.

It seems to me that the major factor driving computer price was not
processor cost but the cost of support chips. Something like the
Sinclair Spectrum and the Commodore 64 only became possible because of
gate arrays and larger memory chips. To save money the Video Genie only
supported upper case adding lower case would have required another
memory chip.

So the major reason for system price drop is multi layer boards and
much greater component integration. Am I far out?

How can you talk about a price drop, when you paid 200 pounds more for
your new computer than you paid for your first? O.K., inflation
etc. probably makes 580 pounds in 2008 a lower price than 380 pounds
in 1980, but not by all that much.

So, rather than talking about falling prices, you should talk about
getting more for your money. A large part of this is, indeed,
increased component integration, but volume of production is also
higher, and more automation is used to fabricate things like disk
drives etc., so a disk drive now costs less than a tape recorder then.
A tape recorder has as many moving parts as a disk drive, the
difference is mainly precision, which is helped by machine assembly.

Torben

.

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