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HP Forum Archive 04

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New HP line ? HP-10BII
Message #1 Posted by GE on 6 Oct 2000, 9:22 a.m.

I just stumbled into a completely redesigned HP-10BII today. It has an acceptable keyboard, is algebraic, numeric range to 10^500, not programmable, the works. At about $30, this seems to be a very nice machine, a lot more convincing than the pathetic HP6 or HP30. Are they designing a new range from the bottom up ? We'll see.

      
Link to new HP10BII
Message #2 Posted by Gene Wright on 6 Oct 2000, 9:52 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by GE

http://www.hp.com/calculators/business/10bii_info.html

            
But not available yet - hp shopping.com does not have them
Message #3 Posted by Gene on 6 Oct 2000, 2:21 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Gene Wright

Called to get one and no dice. Dang!

                  
Re: But not available yet - hp shopping.com does not have them
Message #4 Posted by GE on 9 Oct 2000, 11:56 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Gene

Sorry, I should have checked HP's site before posting. And correction, the keyboard LOOKS good with the nice slanted faces like the CX, but at times it takes three REAL pushes on the ON key to power the beast up. The functionality is nice anyway, at a quite lower price than the original 10B.

On HP shopping : don't use it ! (recall the problems faced by regular dealers ?)

                        
if anyone finds a 10BII in stock, please let me know
Message #5 Posted by Gene on 9 Oct 2000, 2:04 p.m.,
in response to message #4 by GE

I need one quick to become familiar with them, since we use these in our business classes at the University where I teach. Wish I could call someone at HP and say "Hey! Send me, an educator, one of those so I can get familiar with it!".

Gene

                              
Re: 10BII in classes
Message #6 Posted by Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina) on 9 Oct 2000, 4:02 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Gene

Do visit http://www.hp.com/calculators. There is a specific link for high education, http://www.hpineducation.hp.com/hied/hied_home.html and they should be glad about your interest!

                                    
HP knows and has agreed to list my textbook in HP^c
Message #7 Posted by Gene on 11 Oct 2000, 3:51 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina)

Thanks for the note. HP knows that we use HP business calculators at my university.

They have also agreed to list my business math textbook in the next HP^c (assuming that they have a supplemental texts page next time).

Gene http://members.aol.com/hpgene/book.html

            
Re: Link to new HP10BII
Message #8 Posted by Tom (UK) on 12 Oct 2000, 7:27 a.m.,
in response to message #2 by Gene Wright

The page at:

http://www.hp.com/calculators/business/10bii_info.html

seems to have been removed (I did see it a few days ago). A search of HP's site for '10bii' finds nothing.

Was someone 'jumping the gun' i.e. calculator exists but HP have not launched it yet?

When will HP launch this machine?

Is this an insider hoax? (unlikely)

The styling (as I remember when I looked at the page) reminds me a bit of the '41 series.

                  
Re: Link to new HP10BII
Message #9 Posted by Ignacio Moratinos on 12 Oct 2000, 9:48 a.m.,
in response to message #8 by Tom (UK)

It really exists. I saw it at a store here in Spain. Looks really good and doesn't give the cheap impression that the "new" HP32SII does.

                  
Staples
Message #10 Posted by M. Hyche on 13 Oct 2000, 9:44 a.m.,
in response to message #8 by Tom (UK)

A new Staples mega store was just opened in my humble town, and they have the new model as of about a week ago. I pawed it, and it feels fine. The label printing is OK. All in all, a decent machine. I do like the black/48G green color combination.

                        
You saw the wrong version of 10B, I think
Message #11 Posted by Gene on 14 Oct 2000, 7:26 a.m.,
in response to message #10 by M. Hyche

There is a change HP has made to the long-standing HP10B by printing the shifted functions in teal-green now instead of the easily readable yellow.

The HP10BII were discussing is a brand new design, with 2 shift keys, one yellow the other purple. It looks nothing like the old one.

:-)

Gene

                              
Contraire
Message #12 Posted by M. Hyche on 14 Oct 2000, 5:31 p.m.,
in response to message #11 by Gene

I saw the correct version (BII). It is at Staples in McAllen, TX. If you would like, I will buy them out for anyone who is interested.

                                    
Re: Contraire
Message #13 Posted by tomd on 16 Oct 2000, 1:06 p.m.,
in response to message #12 by M. Hyche

Hey Mike! How much were they asking for them?

                                          
Re: Contraire
Message #14 Posted by M. Hyche on 16 Oct 2000, 1:37 p.m.,
in response to message #13 by tomd

Tom,

I don't recall off-hand. I'll see if I can run by there tonight and check for you all.

                                                
None at my Staples
Message #15 Posted by Gene Wright on 16 Oct 2000, 3:15 p.m.,
in response to message #14 by M. Hyche

Looked today at lunch. None around.

They did have the very ugly looking "teal green" HP-10B's in stock.

What on earth is HP thinking?

They change the yellow shift function color for one with MUCH less contrast. They do this on a calculator they are replacing within 3 months. Stupid!

Does anyone at ACO/HP think about things like this?

Gene

                                                      
Re: None at my Staples
Message #16 Posted by db (martinez, california) on 16 Oct 2000, 8:13 p.m.,
in response to message #15 by Gene Wright

what is the "ACO"?

                                                            
Re: What is ACO
Message #17 Posted by Glynn on 17 Oct 2000, 12:35 a.m.,
in response to message #16 by db (martinez, california)

ACO...

It used to be a name: The Australian Calculator Organization. Now I think it is just a loose office-moniker: not really an official name as such. Maybe it is still used within HP, or by ACO itself, I am not sure.

In the collectibles era, you know the divisions that the various products came from primarily by their geographic locations: Palo Alto CA, Loveland CO, Corvallis OR, etc. Each was responsible for some calc development at one point or another, and each had their own "personality"-- which was reflected in the products.

In the nineties, however, HP was about to go out of the calculator biz altogether. Divisions handling this were cut WAAY back, and some reorganization plans were drawn up that saw HP exiting this market altogether. Calculators got a back seat in the early nineties and from about 1990-1995 were being fitted with cement shoes, ready for the last ride. But a few sensible folk inside HP still saw a potential for calculators.

There was an HP office located in Australia, supervising design and production of some of the HP products in the Malaysian, Australian, Thailand/Singapore factories. They either lobbied for, or got stuck with, the calculator operations. I like to think they lobbied for it. They took on the name Australian Calculator Organization, or ACO, and took all responsibilities for the existing lines and new product development of HP calculators. I believe this happened around 1995(?).

The ACO's home-developed product is out there to be seen, a la the 6s Solar, (I think) the 39's, the Xpander and so on. They have had only a meager development budget, I am told, and have since been sort of lumped under the supervision of a new "Mobile Computing" division within HP.

So "ACO", if that name still applies, is where, from our standpoint, the "action" is, or rather, where it should be.

After the new administration split HP and Agilent, the ACO is on the HP half (in my opinion, a mistake). Fiorina's dedication of the HP company to internet-based customer contact and services (she came originally from Lucent) likely means that she/the company sees dedicated calculators as sort of a waning subset of the "REAL star", the PDA.

If the ACO is to continue to deliver professional numeric/dedicated tools, they'll have to prove that theirs is not just a legacy product. They've survived, in part, on the long runs of the 12c, 10b, and such for a while now...

But I have to admit, they've got a tough row to hoe... the HP that spawned the calculators is now becoming an integrated, consolidated monolith, not the same corporate culture that saw internecene wranglings over "turf" every few years. So the goals they set will be mass-market ones, not the narrowly-focused vision of isolated engineering departments.

Such an "assimilated" company would probably have kept Wozniak on, developing an Apple in-house, instead of saying "this does not fit our market needs". On the other hand, such a company would probably not have been as fully instrumental and involved as HP really WAS in developing C-MOS processes and memory and display technologies just to realize the needs and goals of "thin" markets such as test instrumentation, terminals and calculators.

Well, Cheers! to the "ACO"-- I wish it good health and prosperity, and maybe a touch of that old HP spirit and magic...

                                                                  
Re: What is ACO
Message #18 Posted by db (martinez, california) on 17 Oct 2000, 10:31 p.m.,
in response to message #17 by Glynn

glynn; ........and thoes other historic hp atributes like the guts to stick thier neck out, understanding what is needed by people who make thier living doing math: not just running canned programs, and a willingness to make the best. and thanks for the history lesson. not being a collector i didn't know thoes tidbits at all.

                                                      
Re: None at my Staples
Message #19 Posted by Todd Garabedian on 17 Oct 2000, 9:13 a.m.,
in response to message #15 by Gene Wright

Gene,

They probably did some market research and found that the teal colors were more attractive to the kids that buy that calculator. It's the same principle with the 38G and it's funky color scheme.

Todd

                                                            
Appealing but unreadable?
Message #20 Posted by Gene Wright on 17 Oct 2000, 9:50 a.m.,
in response to message #19 by Todd Garabedian

Oh, my daughter likes teal-green, but that doesn't mean she should use it to print her book reports on dark brown paper!

Make the stinking case teal-green if you like, but provide contrast!

The decisions are just nuts! Ok, so my calculator know looks like a Star Trek Voyager Prop Reject. Big deal (I guess). But if I can't READ the labels on it, it does no good!

Gene

                                                                  
Re: Appealing but unreadable?
Message #21 Posted by Todd on 17 Oct 2000, 3:20 p.m.,
in response to message #20 by Gene Wright

Indeed!

You may not be able to read the keyboard, but the calculator looks good! Stylish to the other 15 year olds!

;-)

TEG


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