The difference between the Mac Portable and the iPhone or iPod Touch (seen here) is a stunning reminder of technology’s relentless, progress. One strains your arm like a 16 pound briefcase, the other fits in your back pocket. A 16 MHZ CPU powers one, a 412-Mhz or 532-Mhz CPU powers the other. One includes one megabyte of RAM, the other includes 128 megabytes. One contains a 40MB fixed disk, the other 8,000 to 32,000 megabytes. One has a 2,400 bit-per-second phone modem, the other contains a 54,000,000 bit-per-second wireless network interface and a wireless telephone. Most staggeringly, one cost $12,667 (adjusted to 2009 dollars), and the other costs $99-$299. The difference? Twenty years.
Yeah but how many gov’t subsidies led to that breakthrough?
Must have been trillions!