Computer Prices 1970-today

[yogi]

Here is an article you may or may not find interesting. I picked it off Twitter and was tweeted by the Baltimore Sun. They compiles a list of representative computers, one each from 1970 up to 2018 and came up with the costs. Interestingly they have inflation adjusted prices along with the actual cost at the time. The prices in general have dropped significantly, but what doesn't show in the pictures is the technology which has increased exponentially.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/s ... llery.html

[Kellemora]

Interesting trip down memory lane.
I wonder how they come up with the inflation prices they were showing? They didn't seem very accurate.

[yogi]

I'm guessing they would ask you the same question. LOL Well the prices weren't all that surprising but the selection of machines to represent a given year was interesting.

[ocelotl]

Interesting, I remember the first ones I saw personally, and that were on a dedicated space at Aurrerá Satélite, were the Commodores. I remember escaping my parents view while shopping groceries to find a book on Basic programs for Commodore and typing one just to see them working... I may have been 11 or 12, and it may have been 1982 or 1983. Can't remember the price tag... And the family economy was not up to ask for one of those things.

[yogi]

For all the high tech Motorola developed, they were pretty slow at getting any of it into the production lines. When the decision was made to start using computers in the factories, a Commodore PET computer was the first one to go live. It was simply used to light up a poster size schematic of a board under test. Any failures would get highlighted on the schematic which supposedly was to help the testers and analyzers do their job. All I can tell you in retrospect is that it was a nice show but not very helpful. Things certainly have changed since those early Pet computer days.

[Kellemora]

I was only earning about 150 bucks a week at the time I bought my Apple I motherboard, and later my Apple II and II+.
At the time the company bought the Lisa computer, it cost more than I made in a whole year, even with my side jobs.
But because of that computer, I started making about 50 bucks a week more, and they considered that a good deal for them.