Technology has definitely come a long way since two decades ago. For those who grew up in the 1990s you guys probably remember that computers cost a bomb back then, and that owning a computer was truly a luxury (it still is in certain parts of the world). Laptops would be crazy expensive and people would pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for additional storage which can now be had for $10-$20. That being said, have you ever wondered how much an iPhone would have cost you back in 1991? Well according to Bret Swanson at Tech Policy Daily, he has estimated that an iPhone back in 1991 would have cost at least an eye-watering $3.56 million! Yikes!
According to Swanson’s breakdown, the A7 chip would have cost $620,000, the flash memory of 32GB $1.44 million, and the 15Mbps data connection at $1.5 million. “Considering only memory, processing, and broadband communications power, duplicating the iPhone back in 1991 would have (very roughly) cost: $1.44 million + $620,000 + $1.5 million = $3.56 million.” Of course this doesn’t take into consideration things like the Touch ID sensor found in the iPhone 5s, the display, the touchscreen technology, the camera, and etc., but with 3 components coming in at $3.56 million already, we’d hate to think how much the final product would cost.
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