HP 30b

[Joseph_21sv]

The HP 30b, now discontinued, was introduced in 2010 with 290 bytes of program storage and 50 groups of cash flow storage and an incomplete line of alphanumeric display with custom alphanumeric messages entered via a scrolling menu. Unprecedented functions and speed aside, these features were weak and awkward in comparison with two other HP calculators already in production: the 12c Platinum (2005 version) and the 17bII+ (released 2003); and even in comparison to the discontinued 19BII (which it was supposed to succeed). Even though it was designed to be reflashable, its firmware received no official upgrade after version 2010-04-05. Yet in spite of that, HP never remade it with firmware in a regular ROM. So it wandered in production limbo for four more years (plus or minus a few months) until HP quietly discontinued it. But because of what it was following, it was already something of a severely belated release in 2010 anyhow. A severely belated release of what, you all might be asking. A Pioneer which was a proper advancement over the 12C, or what everyone thought the 14B was.