Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of stuff happening in tech — faster CPUs, better phones, broadband connectivity and digital entertainment.
Despite these advances, I often see or hear people wanting for more — faster, harder, better (much like that song). On top of that, we also want them cheaper. Nothing seems to satisfy us at all.
So when I look back on what has transpired in the last decade, I’m totally amazed at where we are right now. Consider this scenario from 5 to 10 years ago…
- From 1999 to 2004, my PC has always been the same PC — an Intel Pentium III 350 with 512MB RAM and NVidia Riva TNT2 32MB. I did Photoshop, Premiere and played Warcraft 3 with it. It was a great machine.
- When I finally upgraded that PC in 2005, I also bought a 17″ Sampo flat screen CRT monitor for Php7,000 and was loving it. Today, I have two 22″ and one 32″ Samsung LCD monitors in my room, yet sometimes I still find them a bit lacking.
- In 2004, I tried to apply for a fixed wireless broadband in Bacoor, Cavite with Meridian Telecoms. I was willing to pay an installation fee of Php10,000 and a monthly fee of Php8,999 for a 128Kbps wireless connection. I moved to Makati and applied for a 256Kbps for Php2,995 with GreenDot. I was very happy with my 256Kbps. Thank goodness Smart bought Meridian the next year and dropped the price to Php999.
- The very first laptop I bought was in 2006 — an unbranded OEM named eBox (Celeron 1.4GHz) and I paid over Php30,000 for it because I thought it was already very cheap for a laptop. Today, a netbook with the same or better specs as that one would be considered expensive at Php30k.
- In 2005, I bought my first PDA — a Palm Zire 71, sporting a 144MHz Texas Instrument OMAP310 processor and 13MB of usable memory. I didn’t have 3G, WiFi — just Bluetooth, but it was cool.
- In college, every time I go to my home province of Guimaras for vacation, I had to go outside in the plaza and climb up the basketball tower just to send and receive SMS. It was still cool since I am able to contact friends back here in Manila from the boondocks.
- When net cafes started popping up in the metro, people were willing to pay upwards of Php60 an hour. Today, some people still find Php20 an hour on 3G expensive and want them cheaper and unlimited.
Today, we always complain on every drop of our bandwidth, on phones that do not have WiFi, netbooks that should be under Php30k or a WiMax service that’s capped at 512Kbps.
I’m sure a lot of you here knows how it was like when tech innovations in the 90’s and early 2000 are far apart and between. Looks like the faster technology updates, the more demanding we have become of it.
Updated: Here’s a clip shared by SpiderMang in the comments — People in Today’s Society Take Things For Granted.
actually yuga, you can’t compare technology to food. because food as a basic need was being manipulated its price due to the increase of tax and the like. however technology on the other hand is trying to give the best and will be. who knows one of these days, food will become more cheaper because we’ll be eating via machine. joke.seriously that’s life facts.