Computers?
What was the economic importance of Computers? especially in the 90s. Was it because it expanded the market or what b/c i’m not exactly sure. Pwease helppp mee?
What was the economic importance of Computers? especially in the 90s. Was it because it expanded the market or what b/c i’m not exactly sure. Pwease helppp mee?
With the development of the computer, you saw a development of the Internet. This allowed companies to set up web pages where they could advertise and sell their products. People began to buy products online. They did not have to leave home. This created a new industry. It peaked in the mid to late 90’s. Then we had the dot com bubble where many websites and companies went out of business. Still, the online business is going strong. People still can buy whatever they want online. That’s just the economic factor and a small one. The computer has a huge impact on our lives.
Computers reduced the cost of performing routine transactions, especially financial ones. Also, the time required to perform transactions and communications was greatly reduced.
Just like machinery automated physical work during the Industrial Revolution, computers automated “thought work” in the 90’s.
They also made production and distribution of creative works less expensive. Consider the popularity of desktop publishing and home recording. In the old days, big companies controlled the market, network, and means of production.
Despite the growth and obvious importance of the Internet and distributed computing systems, it is the mainframe computer that has provided the greatest economic benefit. Mainframes are able to store and process vast amounts of data extremely quickly, which is why every bank, insurance company and airline depends on their mainframe. Yes, even today!
The major benefits of mainframe processing are twofold. Firstly, operations like accounting and stock control that once took hundreds of people to do manually can be performed much more effectively and pretty much in real-time. Secondly, mainframes can manage enormous databases which allow you to make much more effective use of your data (through techniques known as data mining, for example).
Mainframe computers are alive and well, and running most core business functions quietly in the background whilst the new kids on the block (like the Internet) take all the plaudits.