In 1984, the original Macintosh had 128 kilobytes of memory and cost $2,495, or about $5,616 in today’s dollars. Today, Apple revealed more details about the tube-shaped Mac Pro, its most powerful computer, which has 10,000 times as much memory as the original Mac.
While direct comparisons in terms of processing speed are nearly impossible, by any reasonable measure, the new Mac Pro is probably faster by an even larger multiplier than 10,000. And it will retail for $2,999—or, $2,617 less than the original Mac after adjusting for inflation.
Moore’s law, which projects that computers will on average become twice as fast every 18 months or so, is a primary driver of productivity gains from IT and automation across all industries. The Mac Pro is just a benchmark of its power.