''I've been in retailing 30 years and I have never seen any category of goods get on a self-destruct pattern like this,'' said Everett Purdy, senior vice president of merchandising for Service Merchandise, which sells home computers through its catalogs and showrooms. Since fall 1982, T.I.'s list price has tumbled from $400 to less than $100.
That price plunge turned an unaffordable extravagance into something I could actually buy and start using every day. It wasn't just the computers that became cheaper, but the peripherals (disk drives, modems, printers) and software as well. Suddenly, a home system that was never going to happen could be picked up piecemeal at a fraction of the price.
I wonder how many programmers owe their current careers to this early shakeout and price collapse.
That price plunge turned an unaffordable extravagance into something I could actually buy and start using every day. It wasn't just the computers that became cheaper, but the peripherals (disk drives, modems, printers) and software as well. Suddenly, a home system that was never going to happen could be picked up piecemeal at a fraction of the price.
I wonder how many programmers owe their current careers to this early shakeout and price collapse.