The Infinitely Short Lifespan of Technology

In 2003 I graduated from high school, was preparing for college and my parents bought me a killer laptop. 2.4 GHZ, 512 MB of RAM, 40GB of hard drive space, and it only weighed 7.1 lbs!

You read the above and it makes you laugh! 40GB of hard drive? Today 250GB is the standard and 500GB isn't even blinked at. 512MB of RAM? Ha! 2GB is the standard and 4GB isn't even a problem.

Now consider this: When my parents bought that laptop, it probably cost around $900. It might have been $600, it might have been $1,200, I don't remember. Today, I sold that computer for $50. That might make you laugh. I sort of teeter between laughing and sadness. Think about the swift decease in value this piece of technology experienced. I used it hardcore for 6 years before I bought a new one. It worked fine. The thing that doomed it was that it had become slow and I was tired of putting up with it. Had the computer changed? Not really. It might have lost a step but it wasn't much slower than the day I bought it. It was just slower by comparison to what is out now.

Anyway, that's what I am thinking about this morning. Bought a comp for $900 in 2003, sold it for $50 in 2010.