Technology has been growing and improving at a staggering rate over the last 30 years. The smartphone you probably are reading this article on had more technology and technological memory than the rocket we used to put man on the Moon. Listed below is technology from 30 years ago and there price (inflated for 2016 dollars). It’s amazing how technology has advanced to the point that all of these useful tools are accessible at any given time, in all of our pockets.
Mobile Phone
1986 – Motorola DynaTAC = $9,000
2016 – Any Phone (with a contract) = $20-$250
Text Message Capabilities
1986 – Fax Machine = $1,105
2016 – Included in all phones (SMS) = FREE
Portable GPS
1986 – Magellan GPS NAV 1000 = $6,630
2016 – Included in all phones (Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc.) = FREE
Voice Recorder
1986 – CTR-70 = $110
2016 – Included in all phones = FREE
Digital Watch
1986 – Casio DBC 600 = $45
2016 – Included in all phones = FREE
Portable Music Player
2016 – Included in all phones = FREE
Encyclopedias
1986 – Encyclopedia Britannica = $2,210
2016 – Included in all phones (Google, Chrome, Safari) = FREE
Radio
1986 – Sony CFD-444 Boom Box = $640
2016 – Included in all phones (Podcasts) = FREE
Video Game Consoles
1986 – Nintendo Entertainment System = $440
2016 – Included in all phones (App stores) = FREE
Portable Television
1986 – Casio Mini Color TV = $665
2016 – Included in all phones (Youtube, hulu) = FREE
Film Camera
1986 – Canon Sprint QD = $295
2016 – Included in all phones = FREE
Video Camera
1986 – Sony CCD-V8 = $3,745
2016 – Included in all phones = FREE
Video Player
1986 – Standard VCR = $1,105
2016 – Included in all phones = FREE
Video Conferencing Capabilities
1986 – Future System Incorporated (plus usage fees) = $110,520
2016 – Included in all phones (Skype, Facetime) = FREE
Processing Power
1986 – Cray-2 supercomputer; 1.9 GFLOPS (Appox. 5 Gigabytes of data) = $32,000,000
2016 – Included in all phones (1.9 GFLOPS (Appox. 5 Gigabytes of data) = FREE
Total Cost for Technology in 1986 = $32,136,910
Total Cost for Technology in 2016 = FREE, Included
$32,136,910 in 1986 could buy:
109 standard homes ($292,850)
957 standard cars ($33,560)
84,795 standard home computers ($379)
