Most common calculators in the forum?

[Thomas Okken]

(11-30-2017 02:13 PM)pier4r Wrote:  

(11-30-2017 03:38 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Also, that the 50g and Prime aren't as popular as you thought they'd be because this is a vintage HP calculator website targeted at HP calculators introduced between 1968 and 1986.

I am not sure how to interpret this passage.
For my perspective it seems like "here we discuss systems sold between 1968 and 1986, the rest is not welcomed". If I am not wrong (and I hope I am), I can accept that you have this view but I don't agree on it. It sounds too much like gate keeping.

Indeed. Given the volume of discussion on this forum on decidedly post-1986 topics like RPL and the WP-34, there are plenty of people here who don't share the sentiment that seems to be behind Dave F.'s comment.

(11-30-2017 02:13 PM)pier4r Wrote:  For example about the 41 (that so far has a solid 1st place thanks to S. Cote): it was produced between 1979 and 1990 (quick info from the wiki). So even newer models have 27 years. Who ensures that they are still working?

The point I tried to make in my previous post was that, during the 11 or 12 years it was made, the HP-41 completely dominated the high-end calculator market. If you wanted a high-end programmable calculator, you got a 41, the only question being C, CV, or CX. They sold like crazy and were used everywhere.

By the time the RPL calculators took over the crown, the calculator marketplace had started to shrink because PCs were becoming more and more affordable. The trend continues today, with smartphones squeezing the life out of what's left of demand for calculators.

Because of all this, the 41 is probably the best-selling high-end calculator of all time. Given that, and the fact that they were pretty well made, it's no surprise that they are still easy to find, still fairly inexpensive, and extremely well represented in people's collections. People may talk about their RPL machines more, but the 41 lives on.