| What
do consumers want?
SPEED
Many of the advances in computer technology and the
convergence of many technologies into a single, multi-purpose device are due
to the development of high-speed Internet connections.
Television reception and telephone function (voice over IP) require a great
amount of bandwidth. Bandwidth is expressed in terms of
Megabytes (or Kilobytes) per second.
Display of
traditional HTML (HyperText Markup Language) web pages does not usually
require high processor speeds. However TV broadcast or other multimedia
technologies do need recent high-power CPUs. Processor speed
is expressed in Megahertz (Mhz).
MEMORY
Random access memory (RAM) is essential for today's
extremely complicated applications (programs) and overall speed of the
computer. RAM is expressed in Megabytes (MB)
CAPACITY
Capacity usually refers to storage space.
Today's large multimedia files, operating systems (Windows®, Apple OS®,
etc.) and applications require increasing amounts of storage space. On a
personal computer, files are stored on "hard disks" Disk capacity
is expressed in terms of Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB).
OTHER
CONSIDERATIONS
Display
technology is advancing at a rapid rate. Consumers are demanding larger
monitors or Flat Screen Displays using LCD technology.
Display sizes are expressed in inches, sometimes using the double
quotation mark (").
Some consumers
insist upon smaller, quieter models (Small form factor) or large customized
towers that often have transparent sides and internal lighting. Many young
gamers like to show off their high-powered machines using these special
computer cases.
|
©2004 GRETA de Montpellier