How Much Did Technology Cost in the 1980s?

Anyone asking how much technology cost in the 1980s usually expects a single number. The honest answer is that prices ranged enormously, from about $180 for a games console to nearly $4,000 for a mobile telephone. What they had in common was that almost every device was expensive compared with an ordinary wage.

The Commodore 64, a typical example of how technology cost in the 1980s: $595 at launch in 1982. — Photo: Evan-Amos, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Below are seven well-known machines from the decade, each with a launch price drawn from company announcements or contemporary reporting wherever we could find them. We also show what each would cost in today’s money, and how many hours someone on the federal minimum wage of $3.35 would have worked to buy it.

IBM PC (1981): $1,565, and that was only the start

The IBM Personal Computer went on sale on August 12, 1981 at a base price of $1,565. IBM’s own history page notes that the base machine did not include a display, disk drives or a printer, and that adding those could cost nearly $3,000 more. In today’s money the base price is about $5,713. At $3.35 an hour, the base model alone represented roughly 467 hours of work. See the IBM PC price page for the details.

Commodore 64 (1982): the computer for ordinary households

The Commodore 64 went on sale in the United States in August 1982 for $595. It was far cheaper than the competition, which is a large part of why it became one of the best-selling home computers. Our Commodore 64 price page explains how Commodore managed it. In current prices, $595 is about $2,052.

Compaq Portable (1983): a 28-pound “portable”

Compaq shipped its first portable computer in March 1983 at $2,995, or $3,590 with a second disk drive. It weighed 28 pounds. That is roughly $10,308 in today’s money. You can read more on the Compaq Portable price page.

Apple Macintosh (1984): $2,495 and a famous advertisement

Apple announced the Macintosh on January 24, 1984 at $2,495. The Apple press release, which is preserved in the Stanford University archive, describes a machine with a graphical interface and 128 KB of memory. The equivalent today would be about $8,250. The Macintosh price page covers the launch in more detail.

Motorola DynaTAC (1984): the first mobile phone for sale

The first commercially sold handheld mobile phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, cost $3,995 in 1984. With the minimum wage at $3.35 an hour, that was more than 1,190 hours of work, which is nearly 30 forty-hour weeks. It is about $12,958 now. We have more on the first mobile phone price.

Nintendo Entertainment System (1985): $179.99

The NES reached American shops on October 18, 1985 in a Deluxe Set that cost $179.99. It included a robot called R.O.B. and a light gun, and about 54 hours of minimum-wage work would have paid for it. Today that is around $557.92. The NES launch price page lists what was in the box.

NeXT Computer (1988): $6,500 for a university workstation

Steve Jobs’s second company introduced the NeXT Computer in October 1988 at $6,500, aimed at universities rather than homes. Even so, it shows how high prices went for the most advanced machines of the decade. Today that figure is about $18,221. See the NeXT Computer price page.

Why did technology cost so much?

Three things pushed prices up. Components such as memory chips and disk drives were expensive to make in small numbers. Software was sold separately and often cost hundreds of dollars. And most households had never owned a computer, so manufacturers could not yet spread their costs across millions of buyers. Within about ten years, competition and cheaper parts had brought the price of a capable personal computer far below the figures above.

Play it yourself

Do you know what a famous gadget cost when it was new? Price Time Machine is a free daily price-guessing game built on questions like these, and you can challenge your friends to see who comes closest.

Questions about technology cost in the 1980s

How much did a computer cost in the 1980s?

Prices varied widely. A Commodore 64 cost $595 in 1982, the original Macintosh cost $2,495 in 1984 and a base IBM PC cost $1,565 in 1981, before a display and disk drives were added.

How much did the first mobile phone cost?

The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X cost $3,995 when it went on sale in the United States in 1984.

What was the minimum wage in the 1980s?

The federal minimum wage was $3.35 an hour from January 1981 until April 1990.

Did technology get cheaper over the decade?

Yes. Home computers and games consoles fell sharply in price by the late 1980s, though the newest professional machines stayed expensive.