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Jewish World Review
June 17, 2005
/ 10 Sivan, 5765
Hardware's Changing Nature
By
Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
If recent events and industry trends have any great significance, perhaps it
is that we are on the verge, I believe, of a rather happy time for those of
us who must buy new computers and other hardware, or simply want to do so.
As I write, my PC is transferring a bunch of video files from a PC to a
Maxtor OneTouch external hard drive, using a USB connection. What sold for
between $199 and $210 a year ago, as reported here, is now available for
$170 at an Internet mail order firm called NewEgg.com. Similar devices, some
including a faster FireWire (IEEE 1394) connector, are available at rather
good prices at your local Costco.
The growth of external devices such as the Maxtor, and the descent in price,
which I expect will continue, is a good thing for those of us who want to
move very large files between computers. It's also a good way to expand
storage, if installing an internal drive is impractical.
Do you want to buy a large cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor? You'd better
hurry. They're fast heading towards extinction: no one's making large tubes
these days and liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs, are constantly improving in
quality with lower prices. I just bought my father a 17-inch LCD, to replace
a 12-inch display he'd been using, for $202, again via mail order. Finding
similar bargains in retail outlets can be a bit of a challenge, but in-store
prices for some LCDs are also falling.
Is it a printer you say you need? I don't think there's been a better time
to buy one than these days. Low-cost monochrome laser printers can be had
for under $150; but spend $399, less than three times that, and you can get
a color laser printer, from either of two makers: Hewlett-Packard or
Samsung. On the ink-jet side, prices have been low for several years, but
now reasonable prices include tons of features: again, for around $150, I
can get a very good ink jet printer which also is a scanner, copier, fax
machine and PC card reader that'll import my digital photos to the PC, as
well as print out a "contact sheet" from which I can, with card in place,
print separate high quality prints.
Can you see a trend here? Hardware prices, especially for those who want
more than just "plain vanilla" functionality, are moving downward at the
same time as quality is moving up. In speaking with representatives from
several firms recently, I've heard a similar theme: more features for the
same price, or one that's slightly lower.
Take a stroll through that Costco store I mentioned above, or your local PC
"superstore," and you'll see complete systems with a lot of capability at
very reasonable prices. I recently saw one PC/display combo for around $900
that would easily have cost double that a year or so ago. This isn't the
first time such trends have been observed; but they are accelerating more
quickly, it seems.
All this leads to one further, brief, analysis of last week's news that
Apple Computer will switch its hardware platform to processing chips made by
Intel Corp. Macs may not immediately, or even ultimately, become radically
less expensive than they are today, but having that PC-friendly processor in
the computer, and perhaps a freshly licensed copy of Microsoft Windows, will
allow Mac users to create a "dual boot" system that can run mainly Mac
applications but also switch to Windows when needed.
You can do that today with either software or hardware add-ons, but this
solution when and as it arrives will be far more elegant and,
presumably, more stable. And in having two very high quality computers in
one box, users might end up with the best bargain of all.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.
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© 2005, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com
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