$5 per hour: that’s how much it cost in 1982 to get on the ‘Net.
Well, actually, not Internet: just Compuserve, with its e-mail services.
The original CompuServe Information Service, later rebranded as CompuServe Classic, was shut down July 1, 2009. The newer version of the service, CompuServe 2000, continues to operate.
Nice to see what the future looked like in 1982: a ‘total black’ environment where some sort of wireless keyboard was connected to a desktop computer, much like an Apple Lisa with a color display showing the ubiquitous graph chart.
“Someday, in the comfort of your home, you’ll be able to shop and bank electronically, read instantly updated newswires, analyze the performance of a stock that interests you, send electronic mail across the country, then play Bridge with three strangers in LA, Chicago and Dallas.”
Oddly enough, these are the key points of this vision:
– e-mail is country-wise, not world-,
– you can read newswires, not write them… or watch some sort of video,
– shop and bank is seen as a whole…
Last but not least, it all happens in the comfort of your home.
How funny: mobile users surpassed, somewhere in mid-2013, desktop Internet users, [according to Morgan Stanley]
