I recently came across an old Fortune magazine from 1998. Interesting reading–especially the ads. Behind the front page, Compaq had a full-page spread promoting a brand new laptop. Key selling points:
- Intel Mobile Pentium II processor @ 266 MHz
- Industry-leading AGP implementation with a dedicated 66 MHz graphics bus and 4 MB SGRAM video memory (I have no idea what an AGP implementation is and, unsurprisingly, there is no explanation within the ad)
- 5 GB hard drive
- 64 MB RAM
- 33.6 Kbps modem
- All yours for the low price of $5,399!
We’ve come a long way since then–today, for $600, you can buy a low-end Dell laptop with a 1.5 Ghz processor, 256 MB RAM, and a 40 GB hard drive.
In the same magazine, just a few pages after the Compaq ad, I found another full page spread for a Ford Taurus. The bullet points:
- 100,000 miles between tune-ups
- Second generation dual airbags
- Safety cell construction (I don’t know what this means)
- Speed-sensitive power steering
Hmm. Looks like what you might see if you went to a Ford dealership today.
Of course, others have already compared the auto and PC industries. You may remember an old email joke:
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the
gallon.”In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself): If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought “Car95″ or “CarNT.” But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five per cent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single “general car default” warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would say “Are you sure?” before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Everytime GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You’d press the “start” button to shut off the engine.
