I think people forgot how much a 286 costed. Or a 50MB HD back then.

Back then your value end entry PC costed 4000-5000$ and not 400-500$ or less. And back then money was more worth than they are today. So with todays money it would easily have costed 10000$.

Or perhaps what some of the early TVs costed.

People should elarn history, and not just what they wish. Price is lowering, why? Competition? Only a tiny part. But the main part is VOLUME.

With no competition Intels prices would not be much different than today. maybe 10-15% higher. And they would still innovate is almost the same pace.

If not, other technologies would catch up and make the PC into the gadget segment. And without big volume they would earn as much. It can sound hard for some people, but Intel earns more by selling CPUs at 200$ than they do at 2000$.