Laptop prices have stagnated for 2 years

We have all gotten used to the idea that we work in/around a fast-paced industry where product cycles endlessly spin out new product at lower prices than ever before, but that's not so true in the laptop sector. Even with massive competition from the tablet PC industry, laptops seem to have stagnated, but why?

Spam is where you get an offer that you have no interest at all – whereas direct mail is the term we use for the same message, when it's actually relevant. Through judicious use of spam policies, KitGuru has managed to achieve a ratio of around 75% direct mail and only 25% spam. Nice.

Trawling through today's direct mail, we have an offer from eBuyer for a Toshiba laptop, which looks incredibly familiar. A quick ring around some acquaintances and it becomes clear why it's flagged itself in our collective subconscious.

It appears to be a doppelgänger for another Toshiba offer, available in John Lewis, exactly 2 years ago. Here are the side-by-side specifications, see if you can tell which is 2010 and which is 2012:-

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Given how much of an impact an SSD can have on your experience as a mobile user, it is amazing how many companies don't supply one as standard.

With millions of Apple users happy with to work with 16, 32 or 64GB of storage – it can't be ‘just a space thing'.

Given that the UK trade price for a 120GB SSD is now settling at just over £40, the major manufacturers like Toshiba MUST be able to get a better deal – especially when they actually manufacture memory wafers themselves.

The fact that almost every laptop is now in the £300 to £550 space, must mean that each of the component costs has been completely depleted. The screen, drive, board manufacturers have all been squeezed down to the lowest point possible, so now all we're seeing are tiny increases in specification from time to time.

Another disappointment in this space is that Intel is still flogging its original Pentium brand which should – by rights – have been cast off and killed 5 years ago. No idea how many of these hopelessly outdated/outmoded chips are still being made, but it would be nice if someone at Intel took charge and pushed for a ‘Core: Top to bottom' strategy. It would be fairer on consumers.

KitGuru says: In case you're not sure with the 2 examples above, the one with 6GB of memory was being sold 2 years ago and the one with 4GB is Toshiba's offer to take you into 2013. Very strange.

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