Re: Bad rap for 49G? - how much would you pay for a 1st class a calculator ? Message #5 Posted by Reinhard Hawel on 7 Apr 2000, 5:51 p.m., in response to message #4 by Dave
You're right, but the Cadillac is an important thing for such a company. How can you claim leadership (and this IS an important sales argument), when all your devices start looking like the competitors devices. Sure, that you have to earn money, but that's what Cadillac has to do (and it works for them).
I don't argue against a calculator like the HP-49G, I just stated, what I wanted to see in A HP-49GX (let's add module ports).
Nobody want's HP calculator division to fail on the market. I just had an Impression of a typical HP device, which was:
-) it's ever-lasting
-) it has a serious look (Some TI devices DO have a serious look, see the TI-92)
-) it has the best keys in the market (yes, I even like the fact, that the key letterings cannot rub off, due to their complicated manufacturing)
-) it's some sort of a status symbol
-) it has the highest quality possible in an industrial market
-) The product has a very long lifetime. This goal was met with the 41 in all its variations and HP has met it again with the 48 Series. Thanks, HP.
Yes, I saw the HP-48s prices fall (I remember what I paid for my SX, when I bought it. I got it brand new and super-costly). Prices dropped to abt half the price.
I just wanted to make clear, that I would pay the double price for a calculator, like that I described in my older post. (Guess I'd go up to $500 for a calc, that fits my needs).
That's what was the special in the name HP. In my youth (in the technical college I visited), HP and TEK were the leading companies for test and measurement equipment, together with others. The quality (for a certain price) was excellent and service was exemplarily. It seems, like the focus for HP has changed a little towards fast earnings against a long-term strategy.
I just want to make clear, that there were industrial customers too for HPs professional equipment and there were some of them, who didn't really care about the price. (Yes, such companies DO exist nowadays, but you have to search).
For some measurement tasks (environment monitoring, standalone devices, ...) I'd prefer a small device, where there's a large number of developers (you can easily find good developers at technical schools and universities, that are using HP calculators) and which has a rugged design.
Tataaa, a HP-48GX (but not a 49G).
Besides that, a good manual is not a luxury, but a must for any advanced product as is a stable ROM version (seems, that updateable FLASH ROMs are a pain for the user, look at the BIOS versions for some PCs).
Years ago there was a fixed ROM and no possibility to update later without taking the whole device back. That led to stable, more or less error-free machines (It might be easier to test the older devices with less code.)
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