Re: Concerns about HP's new direction Message #26 Posted by Oliver Unter Ecker on 20 Aug 2011, 8:49 a.m., in response to message #1 by Namir
Yes, Namir, it's sad.
I feel for the guys in the calculator group and wish them all the best. I bet that group's product's are high-margin within the PC group, so maybe (hopefully) HP will just keep the group as is.
As far as heading into oblivion, I don't think so. The RPN idea is here to stay. Not as a mainstream thing, but as a viable alternative for whoever wants/needs it.
As far as new products from HP, it sounds like (though I do lack the insight) the calculator group at HP was sized for "maintenance", rather than radical new product development. So, with or without there being change at HP, truly new products were kind of unlikely anyway. (If someone has info that suggests otherwise, please correct me.)
As far as where will the RPN ideas live on, I think it's important to realize the importance of the smartphone/tablet.
There're hundreds of RPN apps out there, with downloads in the thousands per day (I say this based on hard numbers I have access to). That's where the security comes from that RPN will survive.
It's nice to have keys, but it's also nice to carry just one device. And a touch-screen is the better control for anything graphing.
For a one-line RPN calc, I opinion the sweet spot lies with the smart device. And for a graphing calc, tablet HW can't be beat.
To me, of greatest interest would have been a new development that continues the -48, -49 line.
That would be a major undertaking, demanding many millions in investment (if you don't do it very smartly...), and it looks like HP really wasn't going to pull this off.
If there's (dim) hope that someone could pick up the IP (and people) behind the HP calcs, and take to the skies with new development, then maybe the changes at HP could be for the better.
It's amazing how dumb big corporation can be. I worked at Warner Bros. when Time Warner decided (with 99% shareholder approval) to buy AOL. It was so dump a decision, I almost quit the company over that. Sure enough, it turned out to be the fiasco that any one with a bit of technical savvy could have predicted.
Do these big mergers, upheavals ever work?
I think the big cats are under emotional stress to do big changes to justify their outsized salaries. Sadly, rarely people of intelligence steer the big ships.
What's in a name? "Apotheker" is "pharmacist" in German. Talk about high-margin, service-oriented business.
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