Storage of your files has never been less expensive. Wait a few weeks, repeat that, and it will be equally true. The cost per GB of storage continues to drop.
Which is really good, because we have the ability to create really large files very fast.
Let me give you a bit of perspective.
When I bought my first computer it was a laptop computer, and I bought it in 1992. We paid $2,200, and it was not an Apple. I have long ago forgotten the brand. When I ordered it (via a catalogue…a massive thing the size of a phone book–this was before the Internet went huge) I was ordering one with a 60 MB hard drive (yes, that is an “M”). That was most of the cost.
When on the phone with the sales agent I was told they had upgraded the specs from 60 MB to 80 MB. I thought that was great. It came with a whopping 3 MB of RAM, and I added an additional 2 MB for an additional $300.
Total out of pocket cost $2,500 for an Intel 386 computer. It was state of the art at the time.
And you or I could fill that hard drive now with one 5 minute video taken on a smart phone.
Storage was incredibly expensive, and there was little need for much of it because MP3s didn’t exist yet. Digital photography was not invented yet (not sure about that, but I think that is true).
So, when I say that we can create large files really fast, the natural outcome is we need storage, and we need lots of it and we need it cheap.
Thankfully there are quite a few options, and I want to use the next few weeks to take a look at some excellent options for home users, to explain why they are important, and explain some of the “gotchas” you need to pay attention to.
First up is Dropbox.
What are you doing for storing your digital files?
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Hard drives have actually become more expensive due to supply concerns lately (flooding in Thailand)- but that won’t last. We were seeing historically low prices, which is how the market generally works in tech. I’d still hold off a bit so the OEMs can restock their supplies, but physical storage will become cheap again soon.
On your first point – Jevons Paradox in action!
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Absolutely. I didn’t want to mention the Thailand floods though I was aware of them. Where I am heading with the series will include physical storage in the home options as well as off-site.
Thanks for the comment!
Thad recently posted..Why We Need Storage Solutions
I remember those days. In fact I still have a couple of those pcs!- one with no hard drive at all! Which brings me to my next point – physical storage. I was way excited when I saw your title as I was thinking you were going to talk about options for storing all my junk!!!
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No, I haven’t gotten the physical storage issue figured out! But I need too (if you could only see my garage).
Thad recently posted..Why We Need Storage Solutions
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