3 ms·

> 1981 IBM PC costs $5240 in inflation-adjusted 2023 dollars ($1565 in 1981 dollars) I bought a clone in '83 for $350. I think it was overclocked to a blazing

> 1981 IBM PC costs $5240 in inflation-adjusted 2023 dollars ($1565 in 1981 dollars) I bought a clone in '83 for $350. I think it was overclocked to a blazing 8 Mhz. Here's hoping VR follows that slope.

deely3 3y ago
Thats super cheap!!! How did you manage to find a clone at that year? Does clone had similar keyboard, HDD, display, mouse? I'm super curious, because in 1990 clones of IBM PC in my country still sells for 500-700 USD.
- delichon 3y ago
  This was Orange County, California. I bought it from a guy in his garage, who bought cheap parts from all over and assembled them, back before Michael Dell perfected that business model. Computer Shopper magazine (and similar) was already a thing and you could clip out pounds of ads for such tech.
technofiend 3y ago
You were an outlier buying a clone for that price, but you're right that Columbia, Compaq, AT&T/Olivetti and many others had clones for far less and if you were willing to use something besides a DOS machine, there was Kaypro that bundled CP/M with an application suite and at times a printer. The old joke was that the Lotus 123 predecessor Visicalc sold more Apples than Apple sold Visicalc. Now that was a killer app. IMHO there's no analogous reason or app to buy VR headsets in general much less the Vision Pro in specific.
- throw0101c 3y ago
  > IMHO there's no analogous reason or app to buy VR headsets in general much less the Vision Pro in specific. And until Visicalc there was no reason for most people to buy a (micro)computer. The only folks that bought them were (homebrew) tinkerers that couldn't afford minicomputers (PDPs) or mainframes, where there were "real" applications. But things eventually trickled down to micros and people found uses for them. The Vision Pro may simply be in the minicomputer stage of development.

3 ms·

> 1981 IBM PC costs $5240 in inflation-adjusted 2023 dollars ($1565 in 1981 dollars) I bought a clone in '83 for $350. I think it was overclocked to a blazing

by delichon 3y ago

deely3 3y ago
Thats super cheap!!! How did you manage to find a clone at that year? Does clone had similar keyboard, HDD, display, mouse? I'm super curious, because in 1990 clones of IBM PC in my country still sells for 500-700 USD.
- delichon 3y ago
  This was Orange County, California. I bought it from a guy in his garage, who bought cheap parts from all over and assembled them, back before Michael Dell perfected that business model. Computer Shopper magazine (and similar) was already a thing and you could clip out pounds of ads for such tech.
technofiend 3y ago
You were an outlier buying a clone for that price, but you're right that Columbia, Compaq, AT&T/Olivetti and many others had clones for far less and if you were willing to use something besides a DOS machine, there was Kaypro that bundled CP/M with an application suite and at times a printer. The old joke was that the Lotus 123 predecessor Visicalc sold more Apples than Apple sold Visicalc. Now that was a killer app. IMHO there's no analogous reason or app to buy VR headsets in general much less the Vision Pro in specific.
- throw0101c 3y ago
  > IMHO there's no analogous reason or app to buy VR headsets in general much less the Vision Pro in specific. And until Visicalc there was no reason for most people to buy a (micro)computer. The only folks that bought them were (homebrew) tinkerers that couldn't afford minicomputers (PDPs) or mainframes, where there were "real" applications. But things eventually trickled down to micros and people found uses for them. The Vision Pro may simply be in the minicomputer stage of development.