Data Storage Cost Will Continue to Fall -- IBM Exec
The chairman of IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa told an IT and telecommunications seminar in Copenhagen yesterday that the cost of computer data storage would fall to as little as two cents per megabyte within two years.
"In the early 1980s, the standard unit of computer storage, one megabyte, cost about $100. Today it is 10 cents and in two years, it will be two cents," Lucio Stanca told the seminar.
Stanca also noted that the power of computer processors had doubled every two years and the speed of communications had doubled every three years.
"By the Year 2000, scientists expect to transmit one trillion bits per second," he said. He says all of these factors contribute to the enormous potential of electronic commerce.
"We see the total market for Internet commerce hitting $200 billion by the end of the century, and that is less than 400 days away."
--D. Callaghan