is technology getting cheaper everyday

[sony mavica]

i have noticed in the last 5 years prices of things have been getting cheaper i remember when i bought my first android phone 5years ago

it has a 3.2" inch screen 320 x 480
3mp camera records video at 720x480
running andriod 2.3
cpu 650mhz
256mb ram
150mb storage
battery life is like 6.5hrs using 3g
charge time 2.5hrs to 3hrs


and that phone was bought 5years for $98nzd on special RRP was 149nzd


but now a much better phone for $40nzd

4.5 inch screen 480x800 pixels
4GB internal storage comes with 2gb sd card also
Android OS, v4.2 can update to 4.3 even 4.4 if i use a custom rom
512mb ram
5mp camera with auto focus records 480p video
cpu Dual-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7
battery life upto 11.5hrs talk time 3g
charge time 2hrs

also when i got given a new tv from my sister back in 2010 it was a 21" lcd with built in freeview and usb cost like $450nzd is hd ready

but now for the same price i can buy a bigger much nicer 1080p tv for that price

even my 2gb mp3 player i bought 6 years ago that cost me $70nzd

i can now get a 4gb mp3 player for like $8nzd

it's great that technology can advance so quickly and become so cheap


because from what i have seen it is getting a lot cheaper but everybody keeps telling me technology is getting higher and higher in price

[tooki]

because from what i have seen it is getting a lot cheaper but everybody keeps telling me technology is getting higher and higher in price

On what planet has technology not gotten cheaper over time? I think you need to find new people to listen to…

[rdl]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, while everything else gets more expensive.

[tooki]

And for nearly all products, that impression would be wrong once you correct for inflation. The percentage of our incomes that we spend on food, for example, is far smaller than our grandparents spent. Pretty much the only thing that really has gotten more expensive is housing (and in USA, education).

What we're also seeing in USA is the incomes of the middle and lower classes drop while inflation marches forward. This of course is a new trend that needs to be stopped ASAP.

[Deathwish]

Only if your chinese and read the EEVblog , find something your selling glowingly reviewed there and suddenly the price went through the roof

[VK3DRB]

because from what i have seen it is getting a lot cheaper but everybody keeps telling me technology is getting higher and higher in price

On what planet has technology not gotten cheaper over time? I think you need to find new people to listen to…

Vintage Australian made valve radios.

[crispy_tofu]

I agree, technology has become cheaper over the years. 
Relevant: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/historical-price-trends-for-tech-products-2015-10

[Howardlong]

I agree, technology has become cheaper over the years. 
Relevant: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/historical-price-trends-for-tech-products-2015-10

Interesting, the TV metrics are almost certainly predominantly due to the shift away from CRT. I remember buying my first LCD monitors, 1024x768 for about £500/$700, maybe 2001 or so, they were expensive compared to CRT equivalents, but wow, what a difference they made in terms of ergonomics and reclaimed desk space. The only other upgrade I ever did on a PC with a similar excellent return was switching from HDD to SSD, again at the time a cringeworthy expense.

I am sure that there was some reluctance from manufacturers to switch off their CRT plants: without doubt there were billions in investment in them. For some years, LCD alternatives remained stubbornly expensive, and then about 2005 parity was reached and the flat screens took over.

[daqq]

The hardware in your standard smart phone could be considered an elite workstation 10 years ago, mini supercomputer two decades ago, three decades a major supercomputer. The comparisons get more absurd the farther you go. Guess the price for each.

The point is, that you get more bang per unit of buck all the time. This has been a trend since pretty much forever*.

* - Not counting rapid inflation or extreme cases, crises, etc.

[tooki]

because from what i have seen it is getting a lot cheaper but everybody keeps telling me technology is getting higher and higher in price

On what planet has technology not gotten cheaper over time? I think you need to find new people to listen to…

Vintage Australian made valve radios.

The issue isn't the price of a given model, but of equivalent technology now. (I.e. the new price of a current model.) If you look at the inflation-adjusted price of radios from the tube era, they cost the equivalent of hundreds or thousands of dollars now — far, far more than we pay today.

[moya034]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, while everything else gets more expensive.

This is very true, unless you walk into a Harbor Freight.

[Galenbo]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, ...

Price per kilogram stays about the same, nothing has changed.

[dfmischler]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, while everything else gets more expensive.

This is very true, unless you walk into a Harbor Freight.

Except that lots of the stuff in Harbor Freight won't survive a full day's work IME, so it is really more expensive than buying better quality (even if they will give you another tool for free that will also break in 5 minutes).

[tooki]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, ...

Price per kilogram stays about the same, nothing has changed.

Not true. A 12lb ThinkPad from 1992 cost easily $6000 - and that's 1992 dollars. You can get an 8lb 2015 ThinkPad for $2000. That's far cheaper.

[moya034]

Except that lots of the stuff in Harbor Freight won't survive a full day's work IME, so it is really more expensive than buying better quality (even if they will give you another tool for free that will also break in 5 minutes).

Agreed 100%

[retrolefty]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, ...

Price per kilogram stays about the same, nothing has changed.

  One example would be transformers, which are certainly a part of electronic devices at some level. The raw material cost of Iron core transformers is based on commodity market prices and have not decreased like semiconductor real costs. To get around it there was SMPS designed running at higher and higher switch frequencies so that lower cost and size transformer material could pass the same wattage at lower costs then iron.

 

[Augustus]

[...] because from what i have seen it is getting a lot cheaper but everybody keeps telling me technology is getting higher and higher in price

Well... My parents first color tv set, a Metz CRT, served them well for over 23 years if I remember that well. Yes, it was pretty expensive at the time of purchase and it was repaired several times but repair was cheap and there were several places (in town!) who actually did this for a living. Modern tv's are more or less throw away products, you are lucky if they survive the warranty period before the build in electrolytic countdown timer kicks in and renders them useless. Affordable local repair shops are long gone, anyway. TV doesn't turn on? Throw away, buy new. Even if the timer fails, there's a new model every year with countless new "must have" features and marketing hires the best psychologists to convince you to buy it and toss your now  "totally outdated" old gear. So, yes, everyday consumer gadgets tend to get "cheaper", but at the same time the frequency of purchase seems to get higher and higher... Just an additional thought... 

[Galenbo]

It seems like only computer and electronics technology gets cheaper, ...

Price per kilogram stays about the same, nothing has changed.

Not true. A 12lb ThinkPad from 1992 cost easily $6000 - and that's 1992 dollars. You can get an 8lb 2015 ThinkPad for $2000. That's far cheaper.

You did not isolate the factor "Technology" in your comparison.
The thinkpad was much more innovative and "Technologic" when it first appeared, than version number 18.

[tooki]

I'm sorry, you guys are all veering into ridiculous discussions of semantics. The fact remains that today, we get far, far, far more technology for our money than you did 10, 20, never mind 50 or 200 years ago.

[coppice]

I think for low income people the perception may genuinely be of rising prices for technology. For example, 15 years ago it has cheaper here to contact people when outside the home than 5 years ago. That's because 15 years ago less people had GSM phones, and there were free to use courtesy phones all over this city. 5 years ago the courtesy phones had all gone, because everyone on a reasonable income had a GSM phone, making a GSM phone a near necessity. 5 years ago I could get a GSM phone locally for less than I can get one now. That's because 5 years ago I could get a basic voice phone in the local market, and now I can't find one. The entry level for contacting people has become a low end smart phone. So, in 15 years the minimum cost of keeping in contact with someone while moving around this city has risen from zero to an entry level Android phone and a monthly service fee.

[tooki]

In a wealthy country like HK it might feel that way. But cheap GSM phones are widely available in developing nations, at prices far lower than any other kind of telecom services available before. (It's much cheaper to build a GSM network than a land line network.)

I'm still waiting for anyone here to provide a single credible example of technology getting more expensive.

[bookaboo]

As I read this I have in front of me my PCB with a PIC24FJ64GA which has every peripheral you could ever want (well almost), buckets of i/o, enough processing power to do even a moderately complex project 10 times over, in a package smaller than a postage stamp. Cost = £1.35

Beside it is a lump of plastic and pins thrown together to make an 16 way PCB connector. Cost = £2.68.

Something doesn't add up

[Galenbo]

... PIC24FJ64GA .... Cost = £1.35
...16 way PCB connector. Cost = £2.68.

Something doesn't add up

Compare their price in euro/kg?
It's even done by insurance companies in multimillion projects that do transporting "technology"