Mischa, Drive technology costs per Gigabyte of storage have actually been on a constant downward trend as far a pricing. Granted there will be some price changes as hybrid drives incorporate larger amounts of flash memory but the cost of flash memory per megabyte is also much lower than its ever been. I see new technologies only helping reliability and reducing costs in areas such as overall power consumption to the computer. Overall this trend will mean computers and drives that are much more reliable and the cost per Gigabyte of storage will be reduced. Thank God for technolgical improvements that reduce costs and do not add to them.
Technology is probably one of the few areas where prices haven't matched inflation. Despite significant improvements in processor performance, improved battery life and capacity in devices, we pay much less or about the same for pretty much any device as compared to 5 or 10 years ago in terms of absolute dollar value- even less when you adjust for inflation. A modern device (a current iPod, lets say) has many times the capacity and battery life of it's predessor, yet costs less than the original iPod when it was introduced. That's progress.
I meant energy prices, not component prices. Surely you agree those are going up. I was referring to the claim of saving $10 a year, but from year to year my electricity bill is getting fatter at an alarming pace.
However, it would be interesting to see what inflation of electronics would happen if China followed proper free market trade practices. No more motherboards for $69.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mischa Lockton @ Jul 23rd 2007 2:33PM
I love these estimates of how much a hybrid or other technology of conservation are based on prices which we all know are heading up not down.
james.fogal @ Jul 23rd 2007 4:44PM
Mischa, Drive technology costs per Gigabyte of storage have actually been on a constant downward trend as far a pricing. Granted there will be some price changes as hybrid drives incorporate larger amounts of flash memory but the cost of flash memory per megabyte is also much lower than its ever been. I see new technologies only helping reliability and reducing costs in areas such as overall power consumption to the computer. Overall this trend will mean computers and drives that are much more reliable and the cost per Gigabyte of storage will be reduced. Thank God for technolgical improvements that reduce costs and do not add to them.
Chuckles McGee @ Jul 23rd 2007 7:16PM
Technology is probably one of the few areas where prices haven't matched inflation. Despite significant improvements in processor performance, improved battery life and capacity in devices, we pay much less or about the same for pretty much any device as compared to 5 or 10 years ago in terms of absolute dollar value- even less when you adjust for inflation. A modern device (a current iPod, lets say) has many times the capacity and battery life of it's predessor, yet costs less than the original iPod when it was introduced. That's progress.
Mischa Lockton @ Jul 25th 2007 3:43AM
I meant energy prices, not component prices. Surely you agree those are going up. I was referring to the claim of saving $10 a year, but from year to year my electricity bill is getting fatter at an alarming pace.
However, it would be interesting to see what inflation of electronics would happen if China followed proper free market trade practices. No more motherboards for $69.