From 'Perfect Enough' by George Anders:
Message #1 Posted by DanO on 23 Oct 2003, 11:37 p.m.
"Hewlett's best ideas were masterful. In the early 1970s, when cheap little calculators were catching on, he ordered HP engineers to build mightier machines that still could fit in a shirt pocket. These calculators wouldn't just add and divide; they would churn out everything from factorials to hyperbolic cosines. It took months to figure out how to cram all the essential circuitry into what seemed like an impossibly tiny shell. Outside consultants couldn't see any meaningful market for such an elaborate device that might cost more than $300. But beginning with the HP 35 calculator, scientists and engineers bought the company's calculators by the millions. For a few years, handheld calculators were HP's most successful and profitable product."
[Quote is from page 8 of the book 'Perfect Enough: Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett-Packard' by George Anders.]
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