HP Forum Archive 14

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maybe HP really should bring back the 15C :-) Message #1 Posted by westridge_cz on 16 July 2004, 7:38 a.m. Hmm, maybe HP really should bring back the 15C... I just tried bidding on one on Ebay and got clobbered!! The final bid price was $665.01. Sheesh, I didn't think there was that much demand for them! So waddya say, HP! Bring back the 15C and make it more affordable for the rest of us! :)

Re: maybe HP really should bring back the 15C :-) Message #2 Posted by Walter B on 16 July 2004, 10:37 a.m., in response to message #1 by westridge_cz They are running mad at e-bay, I think. I got "my" HP 15 C for less than 100 Euros some months ago. It runs perfectly, and even the manual was included. Just wait till this mania is over ... Good luck!

Don't hold your breadth, Walter [NT] Message #3 Posted by Valentin Albillo on 16 July 2004, 10:45 a.m., in response to message #2 by Walter B Best regards from V.

Wish there were a way, but ... Message #4 Posted by Gene on 16 July 2004, 11:12 a.m., in response to message #3 by Valentin Albillo 1) How many would they sell per year? This would depend upon the price. At $100/each, they'd sell fewer than at $50/each. What's the market size in units? Assume at $100 each, they'd sell 5,000 calculators. That's $500K in revenue. If you think that would be higher, then help me understand where the sales would come from. 2) What is HP's margin? I personally have no idea, but assume they make 30% as gross margin. That's $150K in margin. 3) What would it cost to produce the 15cp? Again, guessing. They have the facility to make 12cp's. Let's assume they use the same line. New keys, new case colors, new ICs with the 15c materials inside. Recreate the 15c rom from scratch (anyone really think that's lying in an HP vault somewhere?...I don't). Create updated manuals. Pay for incremental people to do all this. Get the product listed in HP corporate's systems. 4) First year results? Negative by any standards. All this for a product that would sell less than the 39g+. Yes, the 39g+ would sell more units than a revised 15c. 5) You've seriously underestimated the sales volume! I don't see that. Oh, they might sell 20,000 units, but they wouldn't sell 100,000. I'd buy 2. At $100 each, how many people here would buy 10-20? It's not worth that to me, since I have a good 15c in my collection already. 6) But HP would relive their glorious past! Perhaps. I just can't see it as worth HP's time. It's the same reason (I assume) most of us don't bother picking up pennies when you see them on the sidewalk. They're not worth your time any more. I don't see the 15c being worth it to the bean counters. Gene P.S. Feel free to substantially engage any of my points listed here, but no attacks. I AM an HP fanatic, but I think a realist too.

Re: Wish there were a way, but ... Message #5 Posted by Chris Woodhouse on 17 July 2004, 5:33 p.m., in response to message #4 by Gene Quote: Assume at $100 each, they'd sell 5,000 calculators. 5,000!? They would sell more than that the first day it was in the stores. Have you been to hp15c.org lately? I have done some rough estimating and figure that the number of people who have heard of the web site is only around 35,000. That means about 4% of those who know about the petition, have singed it. Also, the number of people who would buy the calculator, but will not sign the petition is significant, though hard, if not impossible to estimate. I believe one of the biggest markets for the 15C is among engineers. According to the US Department of Labor, there were about 1,500,000 engineers employed in the US in 2002. Four percent of that is 60,000. The average number of calculators each person who signed the petition would buy is 2, that takes us up to 120,000 calculators. That is just among engineers in the USA. Expand that out to other markets world wide, and that makes for a lot of calculators. Chris W Bring Back the HP 15C Edited: 17 July 2004, 5:46 p.m.

Re: Wish there were a way, but ... Message #6 Posted by Dale Boss on 18 July 2004, 9:01 a.m., in response to message #5 by Chris Woodhouse Given that there’s no commitment or even verification of identity on your site, 4% seems awfully low. Once a real product appears at a real price that demands real payment and the psychology of scarcity disappears then only a fraction of those 4% will buy. Also translating that 4% of people who have heard about the website - implying some degree of interest already - into the general population of engineers is highly speculative. Sadly (for HP) I’ve picked up most of my free HP calculators from engineers who feel they no longer need calculators at all.

Re: maybe HP really should bring back the 15C :-) Message #7 Posted by Chris Woodhouse on 16 July 2004, 11:07 a.m., in response to message #1 by westridge_cz Go back to ebay quick, there is one up for buy it now at $227.50 that has both the owners manual and advanced functions hand book. It looks in really good condition too. Chris W Bring Back the HP 15C

Chris, the iron's hot. Message #8 Posted by Eddie Shore on 18 July 2004, 1:23 a.m., in response to message #7 by Chris Woodhouse Maybe if we send the data from e-bay to HP, 15C fans may have shot of seeing, at least a 15C+ back in stores.

Re: Chris, the iron's hot. Message #9 Posted by Etienne VICTORIA on 19 July 2004, 5:43 p.m., in response to message #8 by Eddie Shore Sure, If we send the data from e-bay to todays' HP, 15C fans might see a 15C platinum back in stores : - Cheap display, - Algebraic as an improvement (why not anyway? but TI does it better) - Gummy keyboard (yes I bought a 12C "platinum") Etienne

Re: maybe HP really should bring back the 15C :-) Message #10 Posted by Vassilis Prevelakis on 17 July 2004, 3:58 p.m., in response to message #1 by westridge_cz My guess is that the only way to get the HP 15C (or 16C) back, is to see if we can modify an HP 12c to run the old firmware. Then we'd only have to figure out how to change the keyboard and key legends. **vp

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