In the 1980s, there were two parallel markets in computing: on the one hand, that of PCs which populated offices and administrations all over the world, and on the other, that of microcomputers, which were disappearing and aimed at the domestic consumer. market. The latter disappeared from the map as soon as the technology of the former became cheaper and allowed them to fall into oblivion with their superior features and performance. The reality is that one of the two markets died out not because they had better products, but because they operated with such fair margins that they could not wage a frontal attrition war.
What happened to cheap computing?
Since then, the reaction of all hardware component manufacturers when the lean times hit has been to raise prices in order to accumulate capital and be able to survive in the long term, which has meant that in a time when having ‘a computer is essential for many jobs and the hobbies we find have become more inaccessible than ever. The proof ? We only have to take two lists of references: on the one hand, the most played games on Steam, and on the other hand, the most viewed on Twitch.
His particuliarity ? They need very poor material as most don’t go for other titles because they are worse but for some reason which is the elephant in the room. The hardware has become so expensive that most people cannot afford a PC with decent performance for gaming.
Moreover, if we have already mentioned 8 and 16-bit microcomputers, it is because their success was due to games. They were primarily a system for playing, and video games are the greatest ambassador of computing in history. Additionally, the PC was not considered viable in homes until the right components for gaming arrived. The boring office worker hardly needs performance, and it’s the PC gaming market that drives the purchase of high-end components.
Not everything is high end
Sales and marketing departments are usually very clear about the type of user to whom they will sell their products, their needs and their budget. However, for some time it has sometimes been difficult to understand the audience for which some of the latest releases are aimed. It is this upward flight that is at the origin of a reduction in the generalized consumption of people.
It is widely said that Moore’s Law is dead, and yet it refers to the complexity in number of transistors and this precept is still maintained. However, the fact that each new node or manufacturing technology is increasingly expensive has made the cost per mm2 it has increased, so given a fixed size for a chip generation after generation, it is more and more expensive. This did not happen before and therefore did not cause a problem.
However, if we are talking about high ranges and taking performance as the starting point to mark the purchase value of the product, then we can justify this additional cost within a scale. The problem arises when said perception of value is not generalized and therefore it is not objective, but rather subjective. In other words, the new high-performance chips may justify the price increase, but they cannot do so at much lower ranges.
In search of a consumer who does not exist
If the cost of designing and launching new components drives prices up, what ends up happening is that you end up dooming most of the population not only to less capable systems, but also depriving them of something she already had before. . Let’s not forget that we are in a period of stagflation, where wages remain fixed, but the price of things increases.
Although a professional considers the computer as a means of production and therefore as a work tool from which he will obtain an economic return, many users have a computer at home for leisure and if they end up finding ‘other alternatives to buying a PC for their daily tasks will go for it. Especially if we are talking about video game consoles.
It may be that the price of a graphics card is priced close to the four digits and that seems normal to us, mainly due to the fact that they are targeting a user who does not exist or does not represent the average user. Simply, ordinary people are not going to jump through the hoop, mainly due to the lack of economic capacity.
So what is the solution?
The problem of overpricing in the computer world is not something easy to solve, but it does require manufacturers to sit down to launch a new form factor of computer, capable of running games and accessible to the vast majority of the public… which, at the same time At the same time, it is profitable for companies and it is useful for developers to create competent software and a set of games without problems.
Since video game consoles are based on the PC with its reduced costs, a good way to consider a cheaper computer that everyone has access to as standard is to take these devices as the basis for creating a new concept computer. domestic. Although things like expandability would be lost and not have high performance in terms of graphicsthe objective would be none other than to have a computer for less than 1000$, screen includedwhich was also all-terrain when it came to apps, i.e. including games.
Many would think that such a proposal would eventually blow up the PC component market. The reality is that a good chunk of PC gamers will be doing so for years with the same system they purchased for years. The enthusiast market looking for the latest processor or graphics card would not be affected by this, it would just be a way to prevent many users from abandoning the platform.
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