The snail was not amused.
Wow. $5,350 for a 10 megabyte hard drive system that’s almost as big as your computer. What a bargain! It’s like a tiny coffin for your data.
In case you’re taking notes, this Corvus hard disk system sold for $15,915.07 in 2009 US dollars. Its retail price constituted a whopping 53% of the average American’s yearly income in 1979 (about $10,121). Yes, in 1979, you could spend half of your annual salary on a single 10MB hard drive setup.
Just out of curiosity, how many of you owned a hard disk for your PC before 1985? Raise your hand.
Not many, and now you see why. Even as prices dropped, most hard disks were well out of the realm of affordability for most home PC users in the 1970s and 80s. Even at 1/5th the cost, this hard drive would have still been beyond the reach of most US households.
