The average purchase prices for standard desktop and laptop PCs recorded by Purchasing Index in their continuous quarterly PC benchmarking service. The graph shows that the cost of PC technology in RSA has continued to drop far quicker than the Rand has strengthened against the Euro and US Dollar. In addition the specification for the standard desktop and laptop PCs has improved dramatically in the last three years until January 2006.
Purchasing Index has been benchmarking the cost of PCs (laptops and desktops) since the beginning of 2003. As the graph below shows, the cost of technology has dropped sharply over the last 3 years; far more steeply than the Rand/$ and Rand/ Euro exchange rates. For example: Laptops have fallen by more than 55% over the last three years while the Rand had strengthened by 30%.
This might indicate an opportune time to compare what internal IT has been paying for these items. Whilst the argument might be that prices have not increased, or that prices have come down, how has the company performed compared to others?
