Why computers sell themselves
Posted 2010-07-27 by Lipstick Nerd

When I turned 18, I bought my first laptop. It was a Gateway 7320GZ with 512 MB of Ram and 80 gigs of hard drive space. It cost me $1,049.99. That was in February of 2005. I remember that day... I was so pleased with my purchase. Couldn't believe all the cool stuff I was going to get to do with my brand new laptop. In fact, these were my exact words, because I actually dug through my old journal to remember all of this:

"It's a really sweet machine, especially for the price."

Today, I realize how laughable that statement really is. In January of 2010, I decided to abandon that "sweet machine" and get a Dell Inspiron 1545. It's got 4 gigs of Ram and a 320 GB hard drive. Plus a web cam! This machine cost me $600.

Let's compare.

Gateway: 512 MB of Ram Dell: 4 GB of Ram (nearly 8x more)
Gateway: 80 GB hard drive Dell: 320 GB hard drive (4x more)
Gateway: Processor 2.8 MHz Dell: Processor 2.0 MHz (doesn't help my argument, but hey I'm honest)
Gateway: No webcam Dell: Webcam with a cool app where you can make yourself turn into a were wolf.
Gateway: 2-3 hr battery life Dell: About the same (there's the honesty again)
Gateway: $1,049.99 Dell: $600.00 (43% less)

The point is, this is why computers sell themselves. Because they are improving every day while simultaneously becoming less expensive. It's an incredible phenomena that warrants a good marveling. Look at me right now, I'm marveling!

Just for fun, let's peruse Best Buy to see what that $1,049.99 I spent on the old Gateway could buy me today.

Sony VAIO: 4 gigs of Ram, 2.26 GHz processor speed, 500 GB hard drive, 5-hour battery life, web cam included = $1,049.99

This Sony simply humiliates my old Gateway, and it is the same exact price.

The most amazing part of it all, I think, is that it has only been five years. What am I going to be doing five years from now? Hopefully talking about the HP dancing robot I could buy with the $600 I used to buy my Dell. I am pretty sure it does not work like that, but it's fun to think about, no?

The purpose of this entry was just to admire the evolution of the computer market. For the next entry, I'm going to explore the reasons behind it - economics post!

Filed under Techonomics
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