[...] Mr. Horn, I was there when Titan (HP-71B) was born. I wrote a *very* large chunk of its ROM. I designed CALC mode. I left in August '83, and I am still furious.
The marketeers wanted an algebraic machine. They said that selling RPN was
just too hard. For programmability, they wanted BASIC, so that people could
run "all that software already out there." We gave them what they wanted. It
had what was arguably the most powerful BASIC HP had ever released on *any*
machine up to that time. It had multiple language capability. It had multiple
file systems. It had math and stat software to *die* for. It was radically
extensible. And it was an algebraic calculator.
The marketing boys ran one ad, then started complaining when they discovered
that selling the world's most powerful calculator might mean that they had to
do some actual work, not only in concocting new slogans, but just understanding
the consequences of what they had demanded.
And then there was John Young, high mucky-muck of HP and exemplar of fine
American management, whose only question about the product was "Can you play
PacMan on it?" He asked me this question during an official dog-and-pony show.
I regret not calling him an imbecile to his face.
There are several problems with a BASIC-language calculator. Management and
marketing were warned, but paid no heed. There are limitations on what you
can do in a one-line display (such as not running WordStar, I kid you not,
they wanted it), but they didn't understand. So Titan was a hard sell, anyway.
But HP marketing and management turned it into a no-sell.
When discussing future products, the stock answers from marketing and
management were:
"We can't do that."
"You don't understand: you're an engineer, not like a real user."
"We can't do that."
"What housewife will ever use that feature?"
"We can't do that."
"Will it run CPM software?"
"We can't do that."
Prior to my exit, we had discussed personal databases, handwriting analysis,
cellular radio, and most of the other stuff that Apple is trying to make into
a Newton. We had a mockup of the HP-95LX floating around the lab in 1983.
All killed by management and marketing, who were busy designing products for
"real users" and then going to work for Apple, where they probably didn't do
much useful work either.
If you like your 48, thank Bill Wickes. I regret that I didn't stick around to
work for him, but, quite frankly, I didn't think he could keep the HP goons at
bay. Symbolic math is, after all, one of those things that "real users" don't
use.
That Titan was born when the stars were askew is arguable. The problem
was very complex, and it started and ended with HP marketing decrees. [...] taken as a whole, it's still the most
powerful handheld computer that's ever been made.