The Role of the Graphing Calculator in 2021 and Beyond

[Jean-Baptiste Boric]

(03-03-2021 06:59 PM)Solver Wrote:  So, the real questions then are, what exactly is interfering with the calculator market in general? And perhaps most importantly, are graphing calculators like the HP Prime even still relevant?

I'd say Covid-19 would be an obvious answer, but that's not the full story.

Computer peripherals are in high demand due to the explosion of work-from-home. HP Inc. is simply following the money because every company had to do damage control because of the annus horribilis that was 2020. The HP Prime is a relatively mature product that can be put on hold for other priorities, at least for a while. The lack of true Python support is however starting to become a major handicap in education because every competitor supports it now.

I believe graphing calculators still have a purpose in 2021. Lockdowns showed that lots of poor families still are under-equipped w.r.t. computers, tablets and Internet access. A graphing calculator, especially one used, is cheaper than any laptop (except for bargain-price junk that no one should ever touch even with a 10-foot pole), is extremely low-maintenance and can free up the single Internet-connected computer appliance that three siblings and two parents are fighting over. Granted, these families are not in the market for a brand new HP Prime G2, but there is definitely a market for this until computers everywhere are as ubiquitous as in Star Trek.

TI actually announced a TI-82 Advanced Edition Python (https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic...highlight=) very recently, a cheap graphing calculator with Python and a color screen, which is probably spot-on for this. That is, if you can afford something more than a dried-up potato from the last century.

As for whether or not the HP Prime itself is still relevant, that's a harder question to answer. There are reasons why you'd want it (long battery life, portability, the HP SmartStream 410 expansion for data acquisition, user experience, low maintenance...), but also reasons why you'd prefer a laptop or tablet (commonality, power, screen size, full-blown keyboard...). Ultimately, only the market can answer that. Who knows, maybe 15 years from now there will be a new graphing calculator from SwissMicros that will be heralded as the second coming of Jesus here by all the HP-48/49/50 aficionados left out by the HP Prime.

(03-03-2021 06:59 PM)Solver Wrote:  Which brings us to our second and last question. Compared to smartphones, are graphing calculators merely just a more clunky and locked down version of a smartphone running a CAS? Now, it is true that there isn't really an app yet (besides of course the HP Prime Pro emulator app) that rivals both the convenience and power of the Prime, but regardless of the current state of the market, such an app absolutely could be written. And then what will the Prime have to compete once that happens?

A purpose-built product that is accepted by exam boards. If it was to evolve into something more, I believe there is a market for a tricorder.

Seriously, the HP SmartStream 410 might be a nice piece of hardware in a lab (I don't know, I've never come across one), but imagine a handheld variant that depending what you plug into could be used as a multimeter, oscilloscope, OBD2 probe, network/serial terminal... A general-purpose engineering device with a CAS engine built-in usable on the field if that makes sense. But that sounds more like something Agilent would do rather than modern-day HP Inc. Whether a ruggedized smartphone/tablet with specialty software and USB-C dongles or a purpose-built device would be better is left as an exercise.

(03-03-2021 06:59 PM)Solver Wrote:  What if you could make any HP Prime act in place of a microcontroller with just a bit of configuration? What if we had a device like a Raspberry Pi, but with much more of the software already written out for it to interface with all kinds of hardware while also having a screen and an input method or two and also able to write and load programs for it on the fly while also being able to serve as a quick CAS?

What you're describing is basically the home computers of the 80's. The modern high-volume incarnation would be the Raspberry Pi 400, which only lacks a screen.