Have computer prices gone up?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Forgive me if this is massively obvious. I’m in China and haven’t followed the news as closely for the past 2 years.

I’m helping my friend buy a computer(a laptop specificaly). We’ve been looking on the internet and the prices seem very high. We’ve looked at Dell, Gateway, and Futureshop(a Canadian store).

I bought my laptop in July 2003. It has:

512 MB RAM

2.2 Ghz Celeron Processor

40 gig hard drive.

CD RW and DVD rom

15 inch square monitor.

This cost me about $1000, which I admit was a pretty good deal in 2003.

We’ve been looking around and all the average quality laptops seem almos weaker than mine and sometimes are more expensive.

Yes, we’re converting the money to American dollars.

What’s going on?

If this is a factual question, can the mods please move it to GQ?

2

AFAIK, Dell and the other U.S. name brands have always been relatively expensive. If you are in China, have you considered local, “generic” laptops or perhaps ones from Taiwanese manufacturers like Averatec, Acer, Asus, etc.? They can sometimes be cheaper, especially if you have to worry about shipping costs, customs, currency exchange, whatever.

I dunno if this helps, but if you want to buy Dell, they often have deals that let you save a hefty chunk off the price of a laptop. For example, there is currently a $750 off $1500 coupon for Dell Inspiron laptops that starts tomorrow. Look here for more info.

If this wait-for-a-coupon route is what you want to do, keep an eye on sites like slickdeals.net, dealnews.com, and hotdealsclub.com.