Re:Getting what you pay for! Message #16 Posted by Ron Ross on 17 June 2005, 11:12 a.m., in response to message #15 by I, Claudius
I haven't shyied away from flogging Hp when they deserved it (and I don't blame you for using that whip either!!!). However, as many here have noted, calculators don't cost what they used to either.
And they aren't used by the same bunch in the same way either. Todays calculator is most likely to be in the hands of a student, not a professional. And students will ruin a good quality calculator nearly as quickly as a POS calculator (I know, I have a teenager who treats all of her electronics as disposable and I have tossed my hands in the air in surrender!!!). The calculator is tossed in a backpack (often the bottom) with all of her books and the backpack is then treated like the Samsonite commercial of years past. When she is using, it is next to her soda and sticky snacks and the keys are covered with gunk! While her calculator lasted a year (and still works) the keyboard is sticky and some buttons are now semi-pasty. Would she value a $300 calculator? She is a $10 calculator user until her last class required she use a graphics. She just grabbed one out of my collection (a ti, fortunately) and abused it terribly.
Hp wants that market too. In many ways it is a better market to have. Irresponsible users who buy, abuse (beyond warrenty issues, so only 1 in 10 can claim a warrenty repair), and repeat customers because they do not take any care whatsoever of their equipment. They may buy 1-3 calculators in a 4-5 year period if they attend college and probably will buy two in High School at the rate they abuse them. What a market!!!
We are really lucky Hp is tossing us crumbs (and that is what they are in comparision to the quality of calculators past) in providing us an RPN option for these new HP (whatever) offerings.
But the Hp49G+ and HP33s are physically more robust that the previous line for the short term user. LCD screen covers protect the weakest part of todays calculators where they are most apt to fail todays user. 90% of the calculator crowd, abandons their calculators after school. The few that pursue a carreer that makes use of math and number crunching, do so with computers, leaving a mere 1-2 percent hardcore calculator users. These guys (US!!) may wear out their keyboards and warrent a replacement calculator. But these crybabies (again, US!) don't affect the market all that much. We are basically ignored for the most part (luckily we do get listened to, on occasion).
Remember, Bean Counters RULE!!! Keeping this in mind, explains pretty much all Hp decisions. If you can make an arguement that the Bean Counter can agree with, you are most likely to get a result to your liking. If you cannot show the bottom line arguement to that group, you will lose.
My own experience with the Hp15c made me an Hp convert (even to this day, but I freely admit, my Hp49G+ is not an Hp48G and I would rather have another Hp42s, not the Hp33s).
I am happy that I can now buy an Hp33s so that I do not risk my much better and treasured Hp's in the field. But Hp RPN's are still available and for general work okay. Are they heirlooms? No, but the originals weren't meant to become them either (although they are of a quality that will endure and become so).
But a calculator that works forever is only one calculator sold. Sad, that philosphy has prevailed, but given the customer above, Hp wants that market, not us. Be glad for the crumbs.
Again I rant. My 2 cents
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