In the music industry, many consumers can now afford a relatively powerful computer, and use it as a device for recording and playing recorded sound. The cost of storage media has declined exponentially – multi-gigabyte hard drives that would have exceeded the storage capacity of entire countries just a few years ago are now so inexpensive that individuals can use them not just to store complete music collections, but to carry around in their pockets. The success of Apple’s iPod is testimony to this. The hugely popular devices – some as large as 60 gigabytes in capacity – have become fashion icons. No one thinks of them as “computers” with “hard drives”.
It would be fair to say that without the effects of Moore’s Law, Betfair would not exist. On the one hand, just ten years ago, the computing power required to process, manage and store the millions of rapid transactions Betfair handles each day (Betfair processes more transactions each day than Visa) was simply unavailable. On the other, Betfair relies on the fact that its customers also have access to considerable computing power, in the form of affordable and easy to use laptop and desktop computers, and that these have access to the Internet. A generation ago, only pari-mutuels and the very largest bookmaking firms had access to computers, and the ordinary player had none.
- 1466 reads
