HP 15C LE (or new 12C) disassembly

[Ron Ross]

About quality and cost. The Hp 15c LE was simply a fan boy calculator as many have said. IT WAS NOT a real Hp 15c, as it was an unreliable calculator for programming and a worthless low battery indicator. Both would be fatal flaws for the original Hp 15c when it was released. Today, not so much because in this day and age, nobody should use the Hp 15c as a primary lifting tool for design. It is a desktop number cruncher, made to replicate an earlier calculator for nostalgic use.
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Perhaps Hp or Swissmicros can make a real competitor to the original line. I suspect Hp would need $150-200 per calculator to actually sell and support such a calculator. Swissmicros seems to be able to do so for somewhat less (but the overhead of a BIG company isn't there).
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The Hp 50G's actual keyboard has always reminded me of my earlier Hp 49G+ keyboard, except it didn't break, just felt too similar and due to my experience with my earlier Hp 49G+, CHEAP. Hence, while I liked my Hp 50G, I never loved it.
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Most engineers talk the talk about buying a decent number crunching calculator, but most are fine with a decent Ti scientific. These guys buy the best value for the buck ie a Ti-36 pro or Casio fx 115. Aside from the ability to program and the venerable Hp keyclick, the Hp 35s falls short of these two calculators for value. I wouldn't compare the Hp 35s if it were a reliable programmable, but that isn't the case. Without a reliable low battery indicator and byte count for proofing programs, I don't use the programming of my Hp 35s.

Then there are a few calculator snobs who want the best and will actually pay for the best. However, 10,000 (maybe 20,000 if you trust the Hp serial number count) Hp 15c LE's were sold, a very high end scientific pocket calculator to placate some of this market. If we extrapolate (ie make up some numbers) that the market is 10X (or evern 20X) this size, that still only means 100,000 high end calc users for potential sales (key word potential). Most of these potential sales might or will be happier with the Hp Prime, Ti Nspire or whatever other high end calculator, and will not settle for a 30 year old rpn Hp pocket calculator.