The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 18

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HP CALCS
Message #1 Posted by designnut on 18 July 2008, 12:25 p.m.

Can anyone summarize why HP computer division went Into the doldrums and what brought the renaissance? Sam

      
Re: HP CALCS
Message #2 Posted by Martin Pinckney on 18 July 2008, 1:40 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by designnut

Hi, Sam.

Did you mean to say HP calculator division?

I think it is simply that their market research told them that the time was right to start proliferating new calculator models.

If you look at almost any product area today, there is a huge amount of variety available, and products today are sold as short-term useful life items, especially electronics. It is tied to three things: constantly changing technology, the relative affluence of western society, and our throw-away mentality (which itself has been at least in part fostered by the manufacturing/marketing industry).

            
Re: HP CALCS
Message #3 Posted by designnut on 18 July 2008, 2:55 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Martin Pinckney

Yes, I did mean calculators. They lost a lot of good will and market impetus, essentially abandoning the field to TI and their classroom sales approach. They lost so much ground I wonder at their reason for a major entry again. surely they aren't allowing bean counters to steer the company? Sam

                  
Re: HP CALCS
Message #4 Posted by Martin Pinckney on 18 July 2008, 3:09 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by designnut

Quote:
surely they aren't allowing bean counters to steer the company? Sam

I would say they are. At least to a much greater extent than we engineers would like.

Which harks back to the many discussions on this forum about how a few cents in manufacturing costs are such a big deal to the "bean counters". I know we have beat this to death here, but I still think somebody in corporate is missing the point. It's not always about price point. Hasn't anyone at HP taken notice of Costco's success? Someone recently called Costco the Un-WalMart.

Martin


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