Smartphone killed the calculator star. Some thoughts... and data too

[debrouxl]

Agreed with Joseph_21sv, the change in the calculator market, caused at least partially by the incompetent rulemakers from the standardized exam testing regulation boards, became visible before the smartphone era.
The '2006 TI-Nspire CAS+, which remained at the prototype stage, and the '2007 Nspire Clickpad with a derivative of the CAS+'s OS and different hardware, are closed calculator models, for consumption more than production of content, and the Nspire's "exam mode" misfeature was predated, with an even weaker implementation, on the 84+, which made its first appearance on the market in 2004.

Other calculator manufacturers' blunders before and during the smartphone era helped and still help TI become dominant and maintain dominance and lockstep on the calculator market:
* due to C.F., HP stopped making brand-new calculator designs for about a decade, until the 39gII, followed by the Prime in 2013, on which HP had to implement the exam mode misfeature;
* after the overpriced Classpad 300/330, Casio waited until 2010 to release a new calculator model, the "Prizm" fx-CG10/20, and until 2013 to release the fx-CP400, a slight evolution of the CP300/330 (still same old OS, which barely takes advantage of the color+touch screen and whose BASIC is insanely slow for some high school grade problems) at an outrageous price tag. The existing fx-CP400 doesn't even have an exam mode, but a newer model which has it is coming.
* at the time of this writing, neither HP, nor Casio offer models rivaling TI's 2015 models for the middle tier of the market. The new 83PCE (French version, with exact math engine and exam mode) / 84+CE (US version, surprisingly without exam mode) / 84+CE-T (European version, exam mode), which is a brand-new design based on an eZ80, is proving popular, and the popularity of calculators with a monochrome screen is waning quickly.
* even on the low tier, while TI's latest (and hopefully last...) variants of two-decades-old TI-83+ technology with a monochrome screen, namely the '2015 82A and '2016 84+-T, are underwhelming because of severely crippled functionality due to lack of ASM programs or third-party FlashApps, the HP-39gII and Graph 25+-E/35+-E (French names, fx-CG something in the US) don't beat them handsomely.