Re: There is no HP-35s Quick Reference Card (It was a joke) Message #13 Posted by bill platt on 27 July 2007, 4:01 p.m., in response to message #11 by Vincze
The Pioneers were the last machines to come with spiral bound manuals. Later in their production runs, they were bound like a book. For instance the 27s, 32s, 42s had spiral, but the 32sii had book-bound. The 12c of course started out spiral, and switched to book-bound. But don't forget that many of the 41c publications and manuals were not spiral bound.
The cost of making a manual (even spiral-bound) used to be a much smaller percentage of the cost of the calculator. In real terms, there was much more room for price in the old days. Today, the margins are slim, and the buyers are price-conscious to a fault. The current buyer doesn't look at the price and compare it to days of old in real terms: rather he compares it to other offerings on the shelf. There is only so much "premium" he is apt to be willing to pay for the HP quality.
Remember, while we are the "early adopters" and promoters, it is in much larger, more brand-neutral buyers that the market is won or lost.
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