The problem, for Apple, was that most of the world's computer users ended up owning cheaper hardware.

And he had to have cheap hardware on which to write that code.

Really cheap hardware is often not terribly well calibrated, and each piece will be slightly different.

He also stated that designing a system specifically for cheap hardware would cause it to have portability problems in the future.

Any threaded transcoder should be able to do way better than that even on much cheaper hardware.

The real story might be that insanely cheap hardware trumps the best possible efficiency.

How can one of the most influential companies on the Web rely on cheap hardware?

They chose to use cheap hardware, which made building a large system a cost-effective process.

There are other differences: less detailing on the legs, cheaper hardware and more uniformity in the size of drawers.

The impact of cheap hardware was felt throughout the economy.