HP Forum Archive 07

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HP calculators today Message #1 Posted by David H Thompson on 7 Feb 2002, 4:10 p.m. Sorry, well off topic, but... Isn't it depressing that an HP calculator can't be purchased these days without "inside" knowledge. Where was it made? Does it have the better screen? Does it have a proper keyboard? Am I going to get a recent one, or one that is "new old stock?" Is it politically correct to buy from Indonesia? Now I read on this forum that we might even be prevented from knowing the manufacturing origin of our machines. Isn't it depressing that ghouls wander over the Web courtesy of Ebay in a desperate effort to profit on the back of the legendary efforts of HP? Everything has its day, perhaps it's time to let HP calculators go, and realise that buying an HP might not be worth the hassle. For me the HP logo will always invoke strong memories. HP's equipment was one of my first encounters with quality. As the day approaches for the vote on the HP-Compaq merger, many others must be sad also. HP, here's to you - American manufacturing hero. Thanks, David

Re: HP calculators today Message #2 Posted by Evgen Fedorenko on 7 Feb 2002, 4:22 p.m., in response to message #1 by David H Thompson But what alternative is there? No one else produces calcs with any kind Polish Notation:(( And the only ones comparable in power are those from TI, but admit it - its more like comparing a Ferrari to a Ford=|

Re: HP calculators today Message #3 Posted by Yani on 8 Feb 2002, 8:10 a.m., in response to message #2 by Evgen Fedorenko Read on comp.sys.hp48 (I think) a while ago that a group in Europe (cannot remember the precise details) are going to manufacture a new RPN scientific calculator. If they pull this off and become profitable (no reason why they should not) then it could give rise to a whole new future. Anybody remember the discussion?

Re: HP calculators today Message #4 Posted by Evgen Fedorenko on 8 Feb 2002, 9:35 a.m., in response to message #3 by Yani I don't think they will be proffitable enough to last for time, sufficient to design a really good calc (unless they get some key members of ACO team..which I personally doubt). Bu the way, has anybody got any estimate on how many RPN calcs has HP sold since they started making them? Cause I think that ex-Soviets have beaten them there - they sold around 1.5 billion PN-based calcs (from 1975 to 1990)

Re: HP calculators today Message #5 Posted by David Smith on 8 Feb 2002, 5:39 p.m., in response to message #4 by Evgen Fedorenko There is NO way the soviets made ANYWHERE near 1.5 billion calculators... that would be around 5 for every man, woman, and child in the Soviet Union. Whenever any engineer or scientist from the ex Soviet Union visited us, he promptly went to the local calulator store and bought one here... they could not get one over there. If they could even find one they were 10 times the price and 1/100 the quality of ours. Then just to totally break their minds we took them to a US supermarket. I think Safeway was responsible for more defections than all other causes combined.

Re: HP calculators today Message #6 Posted by Evgen Fedorenko on 9 Feb 2002, 3:38 a.m., in response to message #5 by David Smith I never said that our engineers didn't want them. But the quality of Soviet calcs was so poor, that they had to be replaced almost every second year. They were also present in quantity equal to the quantity of students in every math class in every school and university. I've got around 20 of those myself (only 3 of them work) The price was around 15 bucks/piece, which was no problem at all(that explains the quality, I guess:) In fact they were even given out for free as a part of some governmental 'social enlightment' programme. Their capabilities were almost the same as HP's of the time, and were also programmable. And after all, those are official statistics, which can be very well proved.....

Re: HP calculators today Message #7 Posted by Evgen Fedorenko on 9 Feb 2002, 3:51 a.m., in response to message #6 by Evgen Fedorenko I forgot to mention that those calcs were also *extremely* slow:(( They could take up to 2 seconds to calculate square root of 1000;-) That's the main reason they didn't go well with scientists.

Re: HP calculators today Message #8 Posted by Vincent on 7 Feb 2002, 5:32 p.m., in response to message #1 by David H Thompson Not sure what you meant by "ghouls wander over the Web courtesy of Ebay in a desperate effort to profit on the back of the legendary efforts of HP?" As for criticizing people for trying to find out where the calculator is manufactured, I think the fact that HP calculators will no longer be made are making people want to buy one that will last the longest. If there is a noticable difference between different country's why not buy the better (not that there is a difference)? In 5 years you might not be able to buy a new one. Better get one that lasts...

Re: HP calculators today Message #9 Posted by David H Thompson on 7 Feb 2002, 6:26 p.m., in response to message #8 by Vincent Vincent, Please re-read thread more carefully: I'm not denegrating people wanting to know the origin of their HP. Ideally they shouldn't need to know, the HP logo should be enough to guarantee a quality product; unfortunately at present, this is not the case. David

Re: HP calculators today Message #10 Posted by Ren on 8 Feb 2002, 10:17 a.m., in response to message #1 by David H Thompson David Thompson wrote: Is it politically correct to buy from Indonesia? (Warning: forbidden off-topic political statement!) Or in my opinion, is it morally correct to buy from China?

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