I have been in the computer industry now for over 15 years. During that time some trends have been the constant, that prices drop, and new technology is always making things. So as of today this is what I am seeing in the world of computer pricing. Here are my basic findings.
Laptop computers are very affordable. Laptops have been falling much faster than desktops, I think this is because they are all made by 7 main highly competitive companies, and they are trying to push eachother for market share. The world of desktops is still controlled by many different companies and most all computers are built by companies in the same nation they are bought. This raises costs, and reduces competition.
Margins are increasing. I have noticed that most stores that sell computer hardware have really increased their margins. I was at Staples today and most of the hardware they were selling was at least 2.5 times their cost. That is much larger than in the past. I have seen this trend in retail stores. Basically they know that if you want/need it now you are willing to pay. In computer systems the big companies have really increased margin on desktop computers. This makes a small company like me much easier to compete. I think that most of this is due to the large reduction of competition in the retail market, most local computer stores are out of business and even big companies like COMP USA are basically gone.
Monitors have leveled off. LCD monitors have been coming down in price for a long time but they seem to reach a point where they don’t go down any more. 19″ and lower size monitors are only 10% less than they were a year ago. 22″ monitors are down a bit more but they still are near the price they were a while ago.
Hard Drive Prices are plummeting. Storage is king, this is mostly due to the higher data density. They can put more data on the same hardware as before simply using new technology. In just the last 2 months 500GB hard drives are down over 20% and most drives are down over 15%. They are much cheaper than they were last year. Even with the decline in prices
RAM has leveled off. RAM is always going up and down, DDR2 RAM, the main RAM used to make computers is going down a bit but is fairly stable. DDR has really dropped in price, at the start of the year it was double the price of DDR2, but not it is just a bit more. I think this is mostly due to lowered demand of DDR. If you are using a computer with less than 1GB of RAM right now then do yourself a favor and upgrade!!!
CPUs Fell off a cliff. The largest change in systems prices has come from the CPU. They have fallen like crazy. 1 year ago a 6400 Athlon 64 was over $400 now you can get a Faster Quad Core version for UNDER $160. Most CPU have lost over half their value, and the stock prices of AMD and INTEL have followed.
Motherboard have increased in price. The motherboard is the HUB that everything connects to. Due to the higher demand and more precice demand of the rest of the better hardware it is now required to use a much better motherboard, so the average price of a motherboard has gone UP about 10% in the last year, but for that extra 10% you get much more for your money. The old ones simply don’t exist any more.
Cases and Power Supplies have gone up. Power Supply Units have gone up slightly due to increased power stability required by todays newer motherboards, CPUs and RAM. But cases have gone up by over 15%. They are the largest and most bulky part of the computer, the production cost is tied to that of commoditys and they have gone up, and their shipping is tied to the price of OIL and we all know about that.
Optical Drives continue to decline. This year we have seen a 20% decline in the price of Optical Drives. They simply can make more for less.
Flash Memory has plummeted. The price of flash memory has also fell like a rock. Flash Memory is an open standard so cheap Asian production has killed the prices, this is great for us the customer, we now can have lots of memory to carry with us, or use in our toys. The only thing that dropped faster than the memory prices is the stock of SanDisk, the largest producer.
Over all desktop systems have dropped about 10% in the last 3 months, and about 30% in the last year. Now is a GREAT time to buy. If you have a computer that is more than 3 years old then you should really think about upgrading to a new system. It is a whole new world out there now. Also many people may have bought a computer 2 years ago or so, but you purchased a computer that was built with 2 year old technology then you need to upgrade. You will be glad that you did. Click on the Image to the right to see our prices.
MP3 Flash Drive: For a few extra dollars you can get a 1 or 2GB Flash drive that also doubles as a MP3 Player. It uses ones AAA battery, if you love music and want to carry a flash drive then consider one of these. A 2GB flash drive/mp3 player is only about $30.
Buy microSD: Most digital cameras use SD memory, but most phones use Micro SD Cards. The cool thing is that if you buy a microSD card you get a free adaptor to make it a normal SD Card. Most companies make much more microSD than SD now, and they use the smaller, higher tech stuff for it, so they are often actually faster. Also you can buy a group of these and use them for many different things and take them with you because it is such a small form factor. I hardly use my USB flash drive any longer because my microSD is so small I can carry it easier and most computers finally have a memory card reader. I keep an adaptor in the case for my PDA in case they don’t have one where I am going.