HP Forum Archive 11

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Wow. $275 and counting for a 15c Message #1 Posted by Gene on 22 Mar 2003, 9:28 a.m. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3013454777&category=3734

Re: Wow. $275 and counting for a 15c Message #2 Posted by David Smith on 22 Mar 2003, 5:39 p.m., in response to message #1 by Gene Well, it's actually not all that bad a price if the machine is in near mint condition. It has the Advanced Functions manual which has been known to sell for over $100 (and usually goes for over $50).

I think it IS a bad price... Message #3 Posted by Jeremy on 22 Mar 2003, 10:18 p.m., in response to message #1 by Gene ... More importantly, I think it should show someone at hp that there IS a market for these. Maybe that is why HP is working on a new RPN calc for this year? They saw the highway robbery prices people are getting for them on eBay and decided that there IS money to be made with them... If only they would get more agressive with their marketing, as TI has done, they would make a killing. HP started out as the king of scientific calculators. When TI really got on the ball, hp dropped the ball. If TI ever had to directly compete with hp in terms of build quality, they would get decimated. However, the competition would be good for both companies. Nowadays, and starting with my high school class in about 1990, TIs are the absolute ruler in high school and college level math classes. I don't even know if HP can get back into the running no matter what they do... -Jeremy

TI FOR MATH CLASS; I was at the U. Bookstore; TI-86 . Message #4 Posted by Norm on 23 Mar 2003, 4:36 a.m., in response to message #3 by Jeremy Hi, Noted your comment that TI is the preferred calculator for math class. Well, let me follow up with my own observations. I was at the University Bookstore that serves the U of Washington near Seattle. So they've got a case full of calculators. Couldn't help but say to the clerk, "I'd like to buy an HP-32S ii" . She said "sorry, that was discontinued 7 months ago". I asked "was it popular with the college math students and their teachers?" She said "no not really". I ask "what is popular for college math" she says "TI-86". She said most all the students and the professors buy a TI-86, here in March 2003 for their math class. I saw the HP-48G+, and I saw the HP-49G. I asked about them, I said 'do the students buy any of those'?? She knew her calculators, and she really implied that they are not popular. SO, what's the point? Nothing too much, BUT, a person could take a look at the TI-86 just to see if there is anything particularly fine about it. I surely would not think so in advance. The thing looks incomprehensible and difficult to learn to use. I have something to say: These graphing calculators are dumb, dumb, dumb, and I'll tell you why. It's a tiny little box with a pixel field of about 60 x 100 pixels. That has less power than a Radio Shack TRS-80 with big 8" floppy disks and a 300 baud modem from about 1982. A calculator is supposed to do portable computing of numbers. It is not a MATLAB program. If I want extraordinarily complex math processing to do matrices or post-process an ultrasound image, I wont be using their stupid graphing calculator, and I won't be using it for anything else (except landfill) because they've made the front panel incomprehensibly complicated and therefore useless. NEVERTHELESS, look to TI-86 (maybe buy one and look it over) if you want to see where the focus point is. I have no doubt it is inferior to an OLDER HP CLASSIC. However, it may be superior to the current HP offerings. HP has totally lost their corporate marbles. They remind me of Ford/Firestone.

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