Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Electronic Devices - costs

One of the most beautiful thing about electronic products are the more its mass produced, the more cheaper it gets. In 2004 an average computer used to have a RAM of about 512 megabytes. Back then assembled computers used to cost ₹28,000 or more. Branded computers used to cost more. In US dollar terms the cost of assembled computers was around $600.

Except for computer science students, programmers and engineers. Normal users simply used it to access the Internet, watch movies, play games, create documents; create and save text, audio and video files. Now the basic requirements of all computer users remains the same. However computers have got faster and the amount of RAM and storage has increased. 

The Raspberry PI Zero released few months back by Raspberry Pi foundation. One can simply connect it to his monitor or LED TV and use it as a computer. One has to buy a USB mouse and a USB keyboard though. 

The Raspberry PI Zero has clock speed of 1Ghz and a RAM of 512 Mb. At $5, its as inexpensive as a full fledged computer can get. The stuff that once cost $500 is now cheaper by a factor of hundred. 

The same is apparent in case of all electronic devices mobile phones, radio etc. The components that make the electronic devices are extremely cheap. The major cost involved is in the R&D.

Also electronic devices become obsolete very fast. In every one and half to two years you get new microprocessors that are twice as fast. Also the storage and RAM increases. These days even you have smartphones that come with 3Gb of RAM.

The processing power and the memory of computers will continue to double every two years. So in the future one can expect many more innovative electronic products which we cannot even imagine right now and they will be available at dirt cheap prices. 






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