higher prices, better quality are the PC industry’s last chance

When I post a review I will often not mention price or even where a product falls in relation to the competition.  The reason being, if you are reading these reviews you a) already know what you want and are looking for an opinion or something specific or, b) you are just curious about these products in which case your not likely to be in the market to buy.

Bottom line, when it comes to high-end gear you have to be willing to pay the price, as with anything worth doing the right way. 

The question is, is that way of thinking good for the PC industry in general??   In the early days (been looking back on the good'ole days lately) computers were extremely expensive.  An Intel SX 386 might cost you 3 grand whereas the DX edition was upwards to 4 thousand dollars.  These days you can buy a quad core Android tablet for 500 bux and people are complaining that it costs too much.

So what happened?

I say there was a trade-off early on, mfgs started lowering prices to make their profits in volume and started including bloatware to offset their losses.  As the trend continued it was a race to the bottom with each mfg attempting to undercut the other and make things as cheap as possible.

Not sure that is the right direction and this article at ExtremeTech is saying the same thing.

The answer to this question has precious little to do with Microsoft. For decades, virtually every computer manufacturer, save Apple, has pursued a relentless policy of cost cutting. The precipitous decline in computer prices is one of the great technological success stories of the 20th century, but the decision to prioritize low prices above all else, over the course of decades has rotted the market from within.

Funny how Apple has been excluded, then again they control the price because they control the hardware.

Related Web URL: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/145517-forget...