The "FIRST PC" and personal timelines (Was: And what were the80s

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Fri Apr 23 00:27:00 1999

At 11:03 PM 4/22/99 -0600, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>$300 was not an expenditure an "average" American would consider lightly in
>1952.

SNIP.

Until recently, the "Average Selling Price" for a "personal" computer was
between $2,500 and $3,000. This is, if I may say so, a months pay for a lot
of US residents today. The _only_ difference was that in 1952 there wasn't
a compelling need for a computer like there was for a car. Therefore,
computers were the "toys" of the highly paid, and $300 would not have been
much of a hurdle for them. (they bought sports cars after all to race on
weekends)

The last 12 - 18 months and the "sub-1000" then "sub-500" dollar PC is an
anomaly as PCs transitions from are recognizably computers into something
that is much more like your microwave oven. Except in this case it will be
a web surfing, text editing, and email communicating station. Those of us
who are buying these machines and setting them up as UNIX servers are way
in the minority :-)

--Chuck
Received on Fri Apr 23 1999 - 00:27:00 BST