One byte used to cost a dollar
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190827-00/?p=102809 [devblogs.microsoft.com]
2019-08-27 22:57
Back in the days when software was distributed on floppy disks (remember floppy disks?), the rule of thumb for Windows was one byte costs a dollar.
In other words, considering the cost of materials, the additional manufacturing time, the contribution to product weight, the cost of replacing materials that became defective after they left the factory (e.g., during shipping), after taking data compression into account, and so on, the incremental cost of adding another megabyte to the Windows product was around one million dollars, or about a dollar per byte.