The actuel Prime future...

[KlaasKuperus]

(08-13-2014 09:33 PM)jebem Wrote:  Same scenario in Portugal and Spain.
Year after year we see less and less calculators on shops for people to buy.
HP was the first brand to go away, at least two years ago, and now we see the same happening with Texas, and only Casio is resisting the trend and can be seen in the shops here and there.

This is a sad scenario indeed for us die hard guys from the glorious days of portable computing.

Apparently what people wants these days are pocket smartphones, many sporting more processing power than many 90's super workstations, where anyone can install hundreds of applications including calculator programs (some of them really nice and powerful - algebraic, RPN, CAS, make your choice or better than that, install all of them!).

So who cares about classic calculators these days?

The education market stills consumes calculators at specific countries around the world, as long as it complies to very rigid specifications to be accepted by the official establishment.
But even at basic school computers did take over calculators some years ago.
Most of the students are native Internet users - they expect any device to be connected - that's it.
It is a matter of time until the establishment/teachers stops forcing the use of dedicated devices such as a calculator as a tool in education.

I grew up at school in the 70's using calculators because computers were rare and only available at large enterprises.
I'm a small collector in electronic devices, that's why I'm interested in them.
Otherwise I use a computer for any kind of calculations since the 80's, and never miss a calculator.

On a more positive note, the HP-PRIME is easy to acquire - just browse the usual Internet portals, starting by eBay.
That's how I got mine.

Hi Jebem,

Unless something changed very recently, the Prime is available in ECI stores in Spain. You can also buy it online through several webstores in Spain (Solocalculadores, Calculatorstore, etc.). Actually, the number of HP calculators sold in brick-and-mortar stores in Spain has actually increased these last few years.

Since the Portuguese ministry of education is not allowing CAS calculators in exams, there is no push on the Prime so far by any education partner in Portugal. It can be found on some online retailers by the way: Worten being one of them.

In general we do see a move to retail and pure education specialists. I personally think this is a good move. Working with these specialists ensures a dedication that (big) retailers simply cannot offer. And we have to admit: until the HP Prime is as big as TI-84+, we need that dedication for Prime to be succesful!