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40 Hilarious Ads For Technology From The Past That Look Insanely Expensive Now
Name a better time capsule than ads for technology. Go on, I'll wait.
Looking back at a gadget from decades ago really shows how far humanity has come. A landline answering machine, a 10-megabyte hard drive... It's crazy to think that at one point, now-obsolete technology was not only top-of-the-line but also a bargain. Now, paying a couple of months worth of salary for memory that fits no more than a few songs makes little sense when you consider that 4 terabytes of external storage cost less than $100.
These vintage ads no longer serve any other purpose than to point out the major shifts in technology and how much better things are now. But then again, that's quite something.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Tandy Ct-300 Cellular Phone: $1,499.00 [$3,116.43 Today]
![Tandy Ct-300 Cellular Phone: $1,499.00 [$3,116.43 Today]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/old-vintage-technology-ads-1-2-5f2a54d04a3dd__700.jpg "Tandy Ct-300 Cellular Phone: $1,499.00 [$3,116.43 Today]")
Haunting Spirit 5 years ago
In twenty years the ad will be replaced by an iPhone or Samsung phone as they are way too expensive for what you get nowadays.
Oathbraker 5 years ago
Apple has always been overpriced. I honestly don't understand why people keep buying it in such large quantities.
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As this list clearly illustrates, there seems to be a significant innovation that changes how we live our lives each decade. With these advancements, some technology always becomes obsolete. With this in mind, one might wonder: which today's devices can become useless in the future?
Isaiah Nwukor, web developer and designer at Storemods, a service for e-commerce-using individuals, said that the cloud might eventually become all that people use for data storage, pushing the flash drive out into oblivion.
In the early 2000s, USB drives replaced floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs due to their larger storage capacity, but now cloud storage has become the top competitor when it comes to storing and sharing. Mostly because of its limitless capacity and increased security.
RELATED:
#2
Imsai PC With 10mb Hard Disk, 64k Ram: $5,995.00 [$18,700 Today]
![Imsai PC With 10mb Hard Disk, 64k Ram: $5,995.00 [$18,700 Today]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/old-vintage-technology-ads-1-12-5f2a54e532eb6__700.jpg "Imsai PC With 10mb Hard Disk, 64k Ram: $5,995.00 [$18,700 Today]")
chi-wei shen 5 years ago
In the early 1980s hard disks were not that common. Many computers had 1 or sometimes 2 floppy disk drives.
Shelby P 5 years ago
and it came with a printer, must have been a great deal
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Steve Barnett 5 years ago
My first PC cost me about £2000? (1997) It was cutting edge at the time. The hard drive was a whopping 1.5GB, wow how big is that!. Don't get me started on the processor speed, 177 Hz. I know! SHUT UP!
My Junkmail 1 year ago
Since most PC clocks ran about 200 MHz in 1997 I suspect that you made a typo and meant to type "177 MHz".
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Nothanks L. Walk 5 years ago
TWENTY. EIGHT. AMPS. What on earth did they use as a semiconductor? PIZZA?!
Philly Bob Squires 5 years ago
I still have a Kaypro IV... it has only 2 5 1/4" floppies and a 5 inch green screen monitor! :) A CP/M unit. Portable at like 30 pounds! LOL
Some experts are also saying their goodbyes to laptops. "Laptops are quickly being replaced by tablets. Modern tablets have more computing power than the traditional user needs," Bryan Lemon, software development lead at Heliponix told Business Insider, adding that most computing needs, even those of many software developers, will likely transition to tablets.
Lemon said it might become common to have a tablet with a docking station that allows peripheral attachments, like a keyboard or a larger screen.
#3
Panasonic Rx 5500 Stereo: $576.19 [$2,046 Today]
![Panasonic Rx 5500 Stereo: $576.19 [$2,046 Today]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/old-vintage-technology-ads-1-4-5f2a54d529e9a__700.jpg "Panasonic Rx 5500 Stereo: $576.19 [$2,046 Today]")
Eric Mac Fadden 5 years ago
I see a lot of people modding these with Bluetooth.... and works better than the new ones!
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KvotheBloodless 3 years ago
I love the unapologetic nature of this ad. "DAMN STRAIGHT IT'S EXPENSIVE! SUCK IT, PEASANTS!"
And let's not forget the advancements made in developing autonomous cars. "The driver's seat will become just another passenger seat as self-driving cars become more powerful and a new generation doesn't even learn how to drive," Lemon said.
Of course, all of this play out to be completely differently. Because as you might not, even though there have been accurate prophecies about the future, there were horribly bad ones, too.
#4
The 1978 Ibm 5110: $18,000
Paizleypie 5 years ago
It's under $18k but you have to build an extra room onto your house for it.
Forge & Furnace Tumulus 5 years ago
Just a bargain, I was 10 years old at that time and had just not saved enough.
#5
Sears 8-Digit Electronic Calculator: $98.95
Stannous Flouride 5 years ago
When he was President, Gerald Ford (1973-76) was given a calculator wristwatch that was reported to cost about $2,000. Before the end of the 20th century they were being given away with toys.
Grady'sRaider 5 years ago
The first electronic calculator I saw was in 1972 at university. A Singer, $3000, 2 memory registers, nixie tube number display, kept in a locked room
Bill Luton 5 years ago
We were not allowed to use calculators in high school because not everyone could afford them. Yes, I am old but hey I use to be cool.
#6
Xcomp 10mb Hard Disk: $3,398.00
MrTree1779 5 years ago
I just bought two 12TB Hard drives for $280. $23/TB. -- This 10MB HD is priced at $340 per MB. At that rate, the 12TB HDs I bought would have cost $23M. -- Today, 1GB (1000MB) is around...23 cents. And 10MB of space is worth less than a penny. -- Amazing how much tech changes in 30-40 years.
Baali Venomax 5 years ago
what are you downloading tat you need THAT much space? My friends think I'm nuts for having three HD's in my PC. One at 500mb, and the other two are 2TB each. I have a lot of music and movies but two 12TB's????? How much ram does that take to run?
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Dave P 5 years ago
that was huge at the time, remember this was a critical stage to getting to what we have today, and in 30 years we will look back on todays drives the same way
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Grady'sRaider 5 years ago
In 1968 I toured a large insurance company in Montreal. They had just installed a new 2.5 million dollar IBM computer system. They were impressed that the machine had 4k memory. All storage was on tape. Programs and data were on punch cards. These were loaded and run by appointment by 24 staff.
Alex Newell 5 years ago (edited)
Are you saving multi-megapixel images in uncompressed png!?
Load More Replies... #7
Spartan Apple II+ Emulator: $599.00
MrTree1779 5 years ago
I see the ad referencing Commodore, Mimic, Spartan, Apple II, and a mime. Not sure what they're trying to sell here... "The Spartan is the Apple II of the Commodore 64 world that's so invisible, it's like a mime in a box." Is that it?
Phunny Philosopher 5 years ago
The good ol' commodore 64. Learned to type on one of those. They had to change the name of the class from "typing" to "keyboarding", which is ridiculous because we don't say "keyboard your password here" or "keyboard your name at the top of the page".
#8
Betavision Video Cassette Recorder: $985.00
Mark 5 years ago
That was due to pornography, seriously, the porn trade went with VHS as the system of choice, that killed off Betamax!
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Philly Bob Squires 5 years ago
That was cheap... my first Sony Beta recorder had only beta 1 and no timer. $1200.00
Thomas Turnbull 5 years ago
Betamax never had a 3 hour tape but VHS did so dispute the name it could be a VHS recorder
Surya Amriza 5 years ago
In my country, Betamax was winning against VHS up until Laser Disc is entering the market.
Rob Chapman 5 years ago
All technology costs an arm & leg when it first comes out. The first plasma tv's cost $10,000 (or more). The first dvd players, close to $1000. The first mp3 players (with about 4gb of storage) $400-$500. Etc etc etc.
Goth Nurse 5 years ago
We used to have both Betamax and VHS, it was so cool and everyone was jealous AF in school :D
Yvonne Blau 5 years ago
I wonder what year(s) all these ads are from... does it say somewhere and I just didn't see?
#9
Corvus Systems Inc. Mass Storage: $5,350.00
moldyapples 5 years ago
I worked at Corvus Systems from 1979 to 1988, employee #9. I have that poster on my office wall. We could not build those drives fast enough.
Ann McNeil 5 years ago
Me too, but I thought it was because I was "Floppy-bound" ... sounds painful.
Robert Camarda 5 years ago
I used to setup and administer Corvus system at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside's Library. It was cool tech for the time, but a headache when the local kids came in on Saturdays and hacked the security (which was easy to crack)
MrTree1779 5 years ago
"System $5350, add-on disk $2990." So...$8340. Which equates to around $20,000 in 2020 dollars.
moldyapples 5 years ago
But hey, that would give you 20MB! Enough for a couple of MP3 files!
Load More Replies... #10
Intecolor 3621 With 51k Disk Drive: $3,300.00
Tor Rolf Strøm 5 years ago
haha, that colored keyboard kinda looks like those fancy keyboards nerd use today ;)
MrTree1779 5 years ago
"Your work may be in black-and-white if your software is. But look at our circus-colored keyboard!"
#11
Sinclair Zx80 With 4k Basic: $199.95
Scagsy 5 years ago
Oh wow! I had the Sinclair ZX81 and it was about as effective as 'Worm' on the Nokia in terms of processing power
C. Mayo 5 years ago (edited)
Me too! The optional 16K RAM cartridge had an annoying habit of rebooting the computer when slightly jostled, usually with the result of instantly wiping out several hours of unsaved programming.
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Brad Guyer 5 years ago
Comes with 1k memory!!!... for <$200!!! Would love to see if a $30 1TB memory stick could be connected.
My Junkmail 1 year ago
I was going to buy one until my father told me that "All of the smart people at work are buying these things". I thought to myself that they aren't bright people that would never hack with them and really use them. They were buying them just for the spectacular fire sale. So I held off until the Commodore 64 became available, and it kept me busy enough to write software for it. I expanded it with the external hard drive, printer, and plotter. I would have had fun with the Sinclair, but not as much as the C64.
Thomas Turnbull 5 years ago
It worked and gave people a chance to try computing so it was a good thing
Robert Jarvis 5 years ago
I had the ZX81 as well - got it in kit form, so had to assemble it myself. Great stuff!
MrTree1779 5 years ago
David Murray, "The 8-bit Guy", created an excellent feature on the ZX80 last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jr7Q1yJOUM
#12
Phone-Mate Answering Machine: $129.50
Meyer Weinstock 5 years ago
Had one. My elder mother still uses hers, which she bought in 1983...
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Just where you want to keep your massive tape-driven answering machine...the coffee table.
Sarah Trachtenberg 5 years ago
I can't appreciate it now, but when answering machines first became widely available, it must've been a social breakthrough!
Eric Forster 5 years ago
I had a Phone Mate with dual cassette tapes. In A Gadda Da Vida was my greeting.
SoozeeQ 5 years ago
Are they cigarette butts? I thought it was a bowl of nuts.
Load More Replies... #13
Emerson Radio Corporation Television Set - 1949: $599.50
WilvanderHeijden 5 years ago
Would be cool to get one of these, replace the tv with a touchscreen pc and use it to play my music....
Scagsy 5 years ago
That is a GREAT idea! I'm gonna scour the antiques shops
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ProductofNZ 5 years ago
$6.5K in today's dollars which sounds like a lot but this was state-of-the-art in 1949. Commercial television broadcasting only started 2 years before this ad (in the US)
fubukifangirl 5 years ago
Now I know why Lorraine's brother assumed Marty must be rich because he had two televisions. Adjusting for inflation, this television would sell for $6,392.36 these days.
Lindsey Judd-Bruder 5 years ago
"Big screen projection" lol. Wonder what those inventors would think, if they saw TODAY'S big screens?
politecat 42 5 years ago
If anything electrical has WOOD panelling on it you know it's old as time
MrTree1779 5 years ago
In 1949, they had no clue how big TV was going to get. The speaker was bigger than the 14 in x 14 in "big screen" TV. -- Also, "Honduras mahogany" (Swietenia macrophylla) is now listed as a vulnerable species.
#14
Jvc Hr-7300 Vidstar Vhs: $1,280.00
Brad Guyer 5 years ago
And kids, that is why VHS won the video wars. They subliminally advertised porn.
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Beta didn't lose against VHS due to pornography. Matt Taylor of Techmoan puts that myth to rest here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeSz6MoX00Q
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Benevolent Panda Mouse 5 years ago
Are they watching themselves?!? Ewww, grand parents were weird.
#15
Sears Color TV: $327.88
Phunny Philosopher 5 years ago
It's portable compared to the giant wooden console TVs that sat on the floor.
Load More Replies... MrTree1779 5 years ago
Given how CRTs are going the way of the dodo, but retro-gaming depends on them for accurate visual recreation, the current CRT TV prices are inching back up there.
M O'Connell 5 years ago
They definitely are! I had a Sony professional video monitor for a very long time. It finally passed away (flyback transformer failure) 4 or 5 years ago.
Load More Replies... #16
Motorola Stereo Hi-Fi Coffee Table: $169.95
M O'Connell 5 years ago
I've got a Montgomery Wards Airline stereo/turntable/8-track made to look like a fireplace, complete with cellophane crinkly fire noises and red light bulb.
Load More Replies... MrTree1779 5 years ago
"Be sure not to spill that boiling-hot percolated coffee. And watch out for the electrical cord coming out of the side. You might trip and hit the coffee, and spill it everywhere. -- In fact, don't eat or drink near that coffee table at all. And put it against a wall to avoid accidents. -- Ya know what? Just get a real stereo console."
Pusfarm 5 years ago
And don't kick the table leg on your way to get more Space Food Sticks or the needle with scratch across the record and you'll have to restart that Mantovani LP.
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Matthew Smith 5 years ago
My family had a radiogram that doubled up as furniture, made in the early 60's but was futureproofed with a 5 pin DIN socket which came in the 70's.
#17
Trs-80 Computer Sold In 1977: $3,450
Bonnie Edwards 5 years ago
My brother had the one at the top. It was given to him in 1986, by our cousin (the family computer genius). I think I crashed it once - but it got back up and ran for a few years after that.
Philly Bob Squires 5 years ago (edited)
The Lobo MAX-80 was a nicer machine. It ran CP/M, TRS-DOS and L-DOS. Used both 5 1/4" and 8" floppies. I still have mine. Haven't fired it up in ages though.
#18
Mid-80's Seagate St4096 Memory Hard Disk: $12,000
Matthew Smith 5 years ago
I can tell you from personal experience that de-fragging one of those drives takes hours.
Grady'sRaider 5 years ago
Once made a one line change to a 4k program on Friday at 5pm. Could not save it because there wasn't room on the disk. 6 hours to defrag. Client bought a disk pack upgrade after getting the bill for me to sit around and watch the blinking lights.
Load More Replies... Tor Rolf Strøm 5 years ago
I'd like to spend 20k on a harddrive today.. damn that would be a lot of space
fubukifangirl 5 years ago
Why were computers so daggum expensive back then?! Even the most suped up gaming computers these days don't cost near that much!
Pusfarm 5 years ago
I lost 4 Seagates in about 6 months so I stay away from them. Haven't lost a WD yet, that I can remember. But with all hard drives, it's a matter of when, not if, so I'm not holding my breath.
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#19
10 Megabyte Hard Drive: $3,500
ISAAC HARVEY 5 years ago
And today, one can get an iPad Pro with 1 terabyte(1024 Gb) of storage from Apple for around $1500.
Philly Bob Squires 5 years ago
Anyone remember the Lt Kernal 10 & 20 MB drives for the Commodore 64 / 128s? They were about $1200 - 1600 US We modified it to use a 105 Mb drive for the low price of $1600! (A Priam drive if I remember.)
#20
Sinclair Microvision TV: $395.00
Robert Jarvis 5 years ago
I wonder how many people would see that and say "You can't watch anything on such a small screen", then go and watch YuoTube on their phones? ;)
M O'Connell 5 years ago
I have a nearly identical Panasonic television that came with a clip-on magnifier :)
Load More Replies... MrTree1779 5 years ago
This must have been in 1977 or 1978. I was born a few years later, and I've only known Terry Bradshaw as a commentator.
politecat 42 5 years ago
I remember taking a later model of these to school and watching it in art class
#21
Cellphone From UK: $895
Matthew Smith 5 years ago
This is why I didn't bother with a mobile phone till they became affordable around the late 90's.
Baali Venomax 5 years ago
I got my first second hand phone somewhere around mid 2000's when it was sold to me by a friend for £30 after she got a new one. It was an Ericisson T10 before they got bought out by Sony. For some reason, it had the theme from The Exorcist(Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells) as its ringtone(midi of course) but thats damn cool. Standard black on digital grey screen, make/receive txts, make/receive calls. Good enough. I used it til the battery pack stopped charging then upgraded.
Load More Replies... #22
Ampex Fr200 Tape Transport: $2,675.00
MrTree1779 5 years ago
C'mon, right? I mean, who *doesn't* want a tape player build right into the wall and exposed to the elements? If that thing un-spools, they can just use one of those giant *gag* pens to re-spool it.
M O'Connell 5 years ago
These tape mechanisms would have been installed in enclosed relay racks with doors or otherwise a very clean "computer room" environment.
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Randy Klefbeck 5 years ago
This was what I had to run sound on in the black box theatre at my community college in the early 1980's.
#23
Bell & Howell 8mm Camera: $207.70
M O'Connell 5 years ago
since the zoom mechanism was driven by the same clockwork that advanced the film, I wonder if the frame-rate briefly dipped while using that feature.
Grady'sRaider 5 years ago
Could be. Images would blur when zooming. I always attributed it to operator error.
Load More Replies... #24
Osborne Computer: $1795
Cassie 5 years ago
At the time, I felt they were made to look like a briefcase. We had a later model with a color screen. They were incredibly heavy.
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La Petite Morte 5 years ago
I love the "You can buy it in any color you want, as long as it's blue."
Eric Forster 5 years ago
I worked for a civil engineering firm that had one of these. That was in 1984.
xeramtheum 5 years ago
Brings back memories! Osborne was my first computer .. fixed it so I could run it off my car battery, drive up to a pay phone, slap on an acoustic modem, log into Tymnet and play Island of Kesmai on Compuserve .. back in the olden days when the pterodactyls visited the bird feeders. osborne-5f...0ec8d1.jpg 
Baron Simone Von Bianco 5 years ago
I'm more than sure these proto-pcs are used as prop for what Will Smith is struggling to sell in "The Pursuit Of Happiness" (2006). That exact round cover.
#25
1977 The Apple Ll: $1195
Randy Klefbeck 5 years ago
My brother had one that had started out as an Apple II and he slowly upgraded himself. These were a pretty awesome deal at the time considering.
#26
1984 PC Computer Unit: $5,000
Scagsy 5 years ago
Imagine how grim it must've been to be tied to one of these all day every day
Grady'sRaider 5 years ago
Used these for software support. Most programs were 3K. Interpreter based language (code compiles on the fly just before it executes). Modems were 600 baud (bytes per second) over phone lines. No internet. No networks. We were all in the same boat. PCs ran on 8086 or the new 286 chips.
Load More Replies... My Junkmail 1 year ago
The photo is a real tease. How could anyone settle for only one single floppy disk drive after seeing this add?
Me Myself 5 years ago
That's a model 16, or 6000, and I had a client that had 11 terminals hooked to one of those. On 4MB of RAM. Running Real World accounting and Filepro all day long. 35MB HDD. Ran like a champ. (Yes, 11 terminals; you could put a 3rd 3-port card in if you cut the right jumper on it).
#27
The Commodore 64: $600
Norma 5 years ago
My first computer. Spent hundreds of hours typing in code in C64 magazines to run free games. What a hoot!
Fuzzy spectrum 5 years ago
Me too. I actually got a program published in a magazine
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Troy Puyear 5 years ago
My first computer also. So many hours of fun! I keep trying to find a decent emulator for my laptop.
JP callaghan 4 years ago
Loved my c64, especially when I got a disk drive for it, loved the free game code in the mags
Randy Klefbeck 5 years ago
At one time there was incredible competition. Texas Instruments, Tandy(Radio Shack), Atari, Compaq, plus there were knockoffs of Apple,....Peach, Pineapple.etc.
#28
The Trs-80 Model 4 (1983): $1,300
Madzdad the bard 5 years ago
I actually had this. My dad added an extra 64k memory to the base 64k, but since it was an 8-bit OS, it could only access 64k of memory and the rest (that he paid several hundred $ for) could only be used as a RAM drive.
#29
Westinghouse 'Big Picture Television': $269 (Today Would Be Around $2,700)
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Another 1949 ad which promises the ridiculous: "Giant Electronic close-up". Definitely a feature we've all used on our TVs. Right...
M O'Connell 5 years ago
It is a 12" tube, unless you were watching content specifically produced for tiny low-contrast screens, it might have been an appealing feature. In reality it was probably a solenoid that adjusted the physical location of the deflector coil.
Load More Replies... #30
Atari 400 PC: $549.00
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Exactly 2-3 games being advertised. The rest are "educational" or "business". Console computer companies often had no clue who their real audiences were...
Alex Boyd 5 years ago
Not exactly--this thing was an attempt to split the difference between Atari's highly successful 2600 game console, and their not-at-all successful home computers. The idea was that kids would want it because of the games, and parents would agree to buy it because of the educational and productivity software. It flopped, but the basic strategy of marketing a computer that kids could use for play *and* school, and that parents could do boring stuff on, went on to do extremely well in the 90's.
Load More Replies... La Petite Morte 5 years ago
My grandparents had this. I remember many many hours spent playing Popcorn, Dung Beetles (Pac Mans predecessor), Centipede, Galaga. I swore up and down for years I played video games off of a tape deck, and friends insisted I was crazy.
#31
Realistic Trc-471 Transceiver: $259.95
MrTree1779 5 years ago
As a former employee, I remember that Radio Shack was inexplicably still selling CB radios in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Little wonder they went out of business. They were so out of touch with the modern consumer.
M O'Connell 5 years ago
CB radios may be waning in popularity, but they are still a vital communication tool for OTR truckers. Not so much for dispatching anymore, but for communicating road conditions in real time. Have you ever wondered how truck drivers all put their hazards on and slow down LONG before getting to an accident scene? It's because a friendly trucker up ahead told them to.
Load More Replies... Tim Haight 4 years ago
Ah yes the 70s. When Smokey and the Bandit came out everyone had CBs. Got tired of that fuc*ing song Convoy.
#32
15mb Hdd: $2,500
#33
The Trs-80 Micro: $3,875
Shea Fujishima 5 years ago
My first computer was a Tandy. Dumb as a rock and 3 times the cost of the laptop I have right now.
#34
1976 Apple 1: $666.66
Baali Venomax 5 years ago
$666.66? And no one figured out back then they were working with the devil? ;)
Roy Phillips 5 years ago
Who the hell came up with that price? It's the work of the Devil, I tell you!
#35
Sears Video Arcade: $178.95
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Absolutely right. Atari had a license with Sears to re-brand the VCS 2600 as "Sears Tele-games" and sell them at Sears. It expanded Atari's sales footprint into the most trusted retailer in the nation (before Walmart and Amazon bulldozed everyone), and boosted Atari's sales significantly, as they were taking a cut of every "Tele-games" machine and cartridge being sold by Sears in-store or in catalogs.
Load More Replies... #36
10 Megabyte Hard Disk System: $3,695
#37
Low-Cost Hard Disk Computer: $10k
Terri Rimmer 5 years ago
My dad was a computer tech in the 70s, working on giant computers for The Omni.
Ramona Rhein 5 years ago
OMG. I must have been poor because $10,000.00 was NOT low cost to me. Even then.
Randy Klefbeck 5 years ago
Interesting how many of these computer companies were based in around the same area in California.
#38
2 Cents A Byte! Sink Your Teeth Into A Helping Of Ram Without Burning A Hole In Your Wallet. From 16-32k Ram Memory: Starting From $299
Baali Venomax 5 years ago
Sure, so you burn a hole in your parents' wallet instead? like a kid can afford that.
#39
The Apf Imagination Machine A Video Game Console: $599
M O'Connell 5 years ago
Including the tape interface, that seems like a pretty good deal for an entry-level machine.
#40
A Basic Cassette Tape Recorder From Philips: $166
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Matt "Techmoan" Taylor has a great episode explaining Grundig and DC international, and how they relate to Philips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT3_cS1KNYc
Add New Image
What do you think ?
chi-wei shen 5 years ago
I still remember when these products were new, and now I feel very old.
J Rob 5 years ago
In 40 years you will be able to look back at every single, cutting edge, "high tech" product of today and say the exact same thing.
Jace 5 years ago
Possibly not. The rate of change/advancement in computer tech has slowed down VERY much. There’s not much further to go in making chips smaller or faster, due to physics.
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Daria B 5 years ago (edited)
"40 Tech Ads That Illustrate How Rapidly Technology Ages And Goes From Super Expensive To Being Useless" No, no, no! The year is poopy enough, let's focus on the positive. How about "40 Tech ads that illustrate history"? Here, better now. ♡ Edit: Also, would love to see some of the east Asian tech pieces too on this list.
Oathbraker 5 years ago
The Japanese make some killer Hi-Fi. There are turntables made in the '70s and '80s that are worth hundreds (and even thousands) now.
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Ian Smith 5 years ago
It'd be interesting to have the prices in the ad listed in today's currency value.
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Toss in the years and price here: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
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Lisa-Marie Dhondt 5 years ago
Remember the very specific sound of your programmed VCR recording session starting? And the scramble when you realised there was no tape or the wrong tape in the machine...
chi-wei shen 5 years ago
I still remember when these products were new, and now I feel very old.
J Rob 5 years ago
In 40 years you will be able to look back at every single, cutting edge, "high tech" product of today and say the exact same thing.
Jace 5 years ago
Possibly not. The rate of change/advancement in computer tech has slowed down VERY much. There’s not much further to go in making chips smaller or faster, due to physics.
Load More Replies... Daria B 5 years ago (edited)
"40 Tech Ads That Illustrate How Rapidly Technology Ages And Goes From Super Expensive To Being Useless" No, no, no! The year is poopy enough, let's focus on the positive. How about "40 Tech ads that illustrate history"? Here, better now. ♡ Edit: Also, would love to see some of the east Asian tech pieces too on this list.
Oathbraker 5 years ago
The Japanese make some killer Hi-Fi. There are turntables made in the '70s and '80s that are worth hundreds (and even thousands) now.
Load More Replies... Ian Smith 5 years ago
It'd be interesting to have the prices in the ad listed in today's currency value.
MrTree1779 5 years ago
Toss in the years and price here: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Load More Replies... Lisa-Marie Dhondt 5 years ago
Remember the very specific sound of your programmed VCR recording session starting? And the scramble when you realised there was no tape or the wrong tape in the machine...
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