To put this into a perspective, Google helpfully reminds:

> A fully configured IBM Personal Computer AT (Model 5170) with expanded memory and storage cost around $5,795 to $6,000 at its launch in August 1984, which equals roughly $18,600 to $19,300 in 2026 USD.

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mrala 5 hours ago | parent [-]

It would be interesting to compare the costs of a top of the line machine every decade or so. Costs were steadily decreasing until recently.

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mikestew 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

John Dvorak said many, many decades ago (80s/90s) that the computer you want will always cost $3000. That statement has been more/less true for some time periods than others, but with some wiggle room I’ve found it to be accurate enough.

Care to guess the approximate price of the MBP I bought earlier this year?

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ahknight 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My heavily-upgraded M1 Max came in slightly over that when I got it five years ago. (Still going very, very strong.)

This new Studio? Can't find a config under $5k I'd bother with. But for the MBPs that number still mostly tracks for the average Pro user. (I buy large and run it into the ground so long I mistake the ground for the computer's remains.)

	▲	mikestew 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I buy large and run it into the ground so long I mistake the ground for the computer's remains. My still-being-used 2012 MBP (which cost me about $3K) says, “hi”. And, as you point out, the new computers I want blow Dvorak’s hypothesis out of the water. Never would I have guessed 30 years ago that Dvorak would be wrong the other direction on price.

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seanmcdirmid 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I bought my refurbished M3 Max MBP with 64 GB for $3k a couple of years ago. Before Ethan I never spent more than $2k for a computer.

	▲	mikestew 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The “spend” and “want” number might differ, depending on one’s financial state. I know I’ve purchased plenty for less than $3K. But the one I wanted…

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jacobr1 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They still are, if what you want is roughly the same as the prior generations capability with some uplift (making then number up, but say 20% faster or more ram or whatever).

What is changing is that there genuine demand for more capabilities disproportionate to the cost decrease curve. Fab demand and supply constraints have slowed or even reversed some cost decreases - but that is still getting absorbed by the overall systems costs when you are looking at things like laptops. If you all you want is the last decades demand to browse the web and use office - things are cheaper than ever.