Want to buy a computer? (PC)

The other day I was walking through a Best Buy, and started to browse their computer section out of curiosity. Having worked there for almost three years, I suddenly noticed something strange. The price to buy a laptop or desktop computer was a lot lower than I remembered it being, so I began to think about the last computer purchase I had made.

In 2004, I bought a near top of the line 15-inch Toshiba laptop for roughly 1,300 dollars with the extended warranty. Now, the most comparable laptop to the one I bought, costs half the price, brand new. Also, the average price for when I was shopping 3 years ago has dropped by almost 3 to 400 dollars, for equivalent specs for that time. Never had I seen such a drastic shift in price, than in these 3 years.

It seems that the price of computers, especially laptops, are dropping to rates in which most people with lower incomes, can afford them. Eliminating them as a luxury item slowly over time, makes me start to think that they are coming closer to the status of a household appliance, like a dishwasher or a telephone. Will computers be something that every home will have (though they pretty much do already), I think yes. But, is this a good thing?

Are the manufacturers cutting costs, and building the same reliable product? Or have materials and costs for production been lowered over these years? Nowadays, most manufacturers strongly recommend buying a kind of extended warranty with a new machine; (I know because I was forced to sell them) Are they doing this to help the consumer, cover a shoddy product, or instill false belief that warranties are alway necessary?

Was there once a time when you got what you paid for? Were warranties unnecessary? I think that lowering prices to make computers more affordable is probably a good thing, because having a computer is better than not having one at all...