Question about the HP70

[rprosperi]

The low-end models of HP's lineup (of multiple models available within a type) at any given time, have generally never sold well, take as examples the 70, 10A, 10C, 22S, 14B, 48S, etc. A notable exception is the 10B which appears (based on eBay listings) to have far outsold the 17B, 19B, etc. also available at the time, but this is somewhat skewed because the 10 was available for a year before, and more than a year after these other models in the lineup at roughly the same time.

Another way to ask this is why would people choosing to buy a premium-class product, then choose the cheapest/lowest featured one available among that premium-class product line? Though HP did not tend to plan this way, many companies introduce a low-end model simply to provide better optics on the value of the higher-cost (and higher margin) products in the same family. I guess it's the same reason the lowest price Cadillac/BMW/Mercedes is never the best selling model. If you're going to go for the good ones, then get a really good one!

As for h/w, I assume the smaller set of features in the 70 did not dramatically lower the ROM size, certainly not as much as the commensurate difference in price, so HP was using value-based pricing, not simple markup above mfg. cost costs.