How much did the first computer cost?

[discod]

I just want to point out that the people who bought the first of these items ALWAYS paid more than people who bought them later on (considering the value of the dollar within the appropitate time frame).

THE FIRST...
Car
TV
Color TV
VCR
Computer
PlayStation
Microwave oven
Refrigerator
Fax Machine
Telephone
Camcorder
Digital Camera
Stereo
Aces High
Etc, etc, etc, etc,

But eventually once the market grew for these products the price was lowered and all benefited.  

HTC is doing nothing different than any other successful exciting new technology.  YOU PAY THE PRICE FOR BEING FIRST!!!  Duh!!  You all should have seen this coming from a mile away!

Your "special treatment" for being first is that you are "first" and there's nothing like being there first and being part of history.  

P.S. sorry if someone already made this point, I got tired of reading the other threads after 150 messages  

[NUTTZ]

Well since you asked.

I bought my first "real" computer the week 386's came out.

386
4ram
256k color card
14,000 modem ( THAT was DA toejam!!!)
Soundblaster 16 ( i think)
Caching was little chips you could add onto the mom board.( I think, i know i still have them, im saving them as a memento)
Corel 1  $799.00
mouse
keyboard
13" monitor ( color)

$4,700.00

HP IIp lazer printer $5,500.00 1.5meg memory
postscript emulation addon card for printer $750.00
2meg memory addon for printer $1,000.00

By the time i got threw the total package was around $13,500 US
 Boot up time for windows was about 5 minutes on a 286 My 386 did it in under 3 minutes, I thought my toejam didn't stink with this computer. I WAS THE MAN!!!

STILL i'll never regret the purchase

now
i have 5 of these:
P3 800 133 bus INTEL
Asus 3v4x something or other momboard
Gforce 32 meg color card.
512 133 ram
17" monitor ( i know im living in the dark ages here)
Soundblaster LIVE 5:1 digital
DVD
Read/write CD
5:1 speakers
CHpro throttle,joy,peddals,
Mic/headset
I fart and the computer automatically opens the window.
And one BIG comfortable chair for my BIG BUTT!

NUTTZ  P.S. thanks for the stroll down memory lane

[indian]

I paid 3500 for a 386 16/33 and thought I got a good deal.

------------------
Tommy (INDIAN) Toon
Indians Home page were links to help pages can be found.
Indian's Homepage

[Maverick]

Discod,

Your analogy is not relevant.
Price has not been lowered, just a special offer for targeted population. Players at large are not eligible.

If price goes down cool.

I bought my computer when apple IIc came out. It was $700 including a joystick.

Got my first IBM clone 8088 turbo 10mhz much later when first 286's came out. Less than $1000 including a 10 meg HD. I always upgrade to the second level of technology after the highest versions come out. About every 12 to 18 months or so. Keeps cost manageable.

Mav

[oboe]

Too true, Mav.

I also think we are talking more about a "rate" here, and not so much a "price".
This is an ongoing monthly fee, not a single
purchase price, as with a car, or computer.

[popeye]

I have a 10MB (yes, Mega) hard drive that I paid $1700.00 for, twenty years ago.  I don't use if for anything, but I can't throw it away.  

[Mighty1]

My first REAL computer was a Packard bell 8088 with 2 5 1/4 floppy drives and no HD for $2500.

A year later I bought a 20meg HD for $220 and my wife nearly took my head of cause she said I would never need that much HD space.



------------------
Mighty1
The New Baby Harp Seals
"Come try to club THIS Seal"

[flakbait]

Close to 7 years ago a guy quoted me $2,300 for the following system:

non-interlaced monitor [this was a choice, not automatic]
486 DX2/66
12MB RAM
540MB HD

At that time a Pentium 90 would have run me an additional $500.

Oddly enough, I paid almost exactly that price for my current system 3 years ago. Saving money for new motherboard, P3 933, 256 MB SDRAM, 30GB HD.

Current price for all that right now would run me $1,700. I might just buy a new computer, at least it would come with a great warranty.




------------------
Flakbait
Delta 6's Flight School
"My art is the wings of an aircraft through the skies, my music the deep hum of a prop as it slices the air, my thrill the thunder of guns tearing asunder an enemy plane."
Flakbait
19 September 2000

[Skuzzy]

First computer:  TRS-80 Model 1 with 4MB of ram, later upgraded to 16MB of ram with the expansion interface. Still have it.

First hard drive:  8MB Seagate 8inch.  Still have it,...and it still runs.  Later I got a 5MB 5 1/4" Tandon drive.  Still have it....it is dead though.

Second computer:  TRS-80 Model 4, still have it and still use it for MIDI control.

I think if I totalled up what I have spent on computers and associated periperals, it would be more than I spent on my first house.

------------------
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[JimBear]

Cant remember how much my first puter was but I do know how much I paid for my first HardDrive...   40MB Harddrive for my Amiga1000 cost $932.29 (including tax)
my wife was kind enough to frame this for me, just so I dont forget....

[SkyVon]

I think I beat you all.

My first computer (which I bought with my own money) was a TRS-80 with a staggering 16k memory!!!   YES, 16k!!!  Can’t remember how much I paid Radio Shack for that baby.

It did come with a cool tape recorder that served as an early version of a 5 1/4” drive.
Loved listing to the screechy sounds it put out.

There was a space combat game that kept me up late at night.  I just remember that the “&” and “@” ships were real nasty.  Yes, those ships really we’re &’s and @’s   .

I learned to program in BASIC on that computer.  The following year college taught me that all important language, COBOL  

Having just installed my latest upgrade, Athlon 700, I look back on my TRS days with nostalgia.


[This message has been edited by SkyVon (edited 10-27-2000).]

[discod]

He he he it's amazing to see what everyone's first computer really cost!  Geez those things were expensive!  

Maverick, you are correct, my analogy is not entirely accurate because I failed to mention that each one of those manufactures/inventors also did "test market" pricing to find out what the most profitable price would be.

It is a very common practice.  Usually most test pricing is done in different regions of the country and not on Internet based products.  So most people never know that for example people in Ohio are paying 25% more for a product than people in Maine.

I have had the opportunity to travel to 43 states and I can tell you I have seen this "Special Offer" pricing on numerous products and when I returned back to my home state and inquired if I could get the same offer the answer was always "Sorry but this is a special targeted market and the offer is only good for them."

The Internet has made it more difficult to do "test marketing" because people spread the word so fast now and it ends up causing a lot more frustration for copmanies.

But basic marketing/sales principles teach you that before you make a price change you should test it on a market OTHER THAN your current market.  You shold test it on a potential market, one that is not currently interested at the current price.

Now it doens't tkae a marketing genius to figure out that if current customers are paying $30 then lowering the price by $10 will make them happy.  What does take a little more marketing savvy is figuring out a profitable price that will attract new customers that will not pay $30.  

You can't lower the price accross the board until you know it will attract a new kind of customer.  Becasue if you lower the price accross the board and then it doesn't attract any new types of customers in the quantities you had hoped...then you have slit your own throat.

Remember HTC is a business...and  a very small one at that.  Every decision they make at this point it time is critical to their long-term survival.  We are here to play a game, they are here to make money.  

Let's just all hope that their test works and attracts a whole bunch more people.  We'll all benefit!  But don't assume that it will work, you have a tainted perspective as a $30 customer.  

OK I blabbered on enough and no one will read this anyway.  

[Wilfrid]

Actually Discod, that`s probably the most easily understandable explanation of the whole affair. To me anyway. <S>

Wilfrid
CO 346th BS

[Creamo]

Damn, I didnt know what to think till I read that Discod...makes sense actually now. Good reply.

I do wish though, that they would make all the cheerleaders and HTC fluffers like SOB Droppy Shorts, and Ooody pay $50 a month and donate the extra $ to the Europeans because it sucks only having 25-45 players on late night West Coast time.

[This message has been edited by Creamo (edited 10-27-2000).]