Any new Calculator?

[panel123]

Hello everyone!

I've been trying to find some information about this! So I couldn't find any, that's why I'm here asking you guys!

I used to have a 35s calculator, however, I got some problems with mine... Not really a problem though... My calculator got stolen!

Now I'm using my 50g to do the stuff, in which is a great calculator, but you guys know, the 50g is not as practical to take with you as the 35s is... and for the tasks that I'm performing, it's not necessary to have all the 50g potential with me...

So, I have to buy a new one, and I started looking around for new HP calculators, the only thing that I found out is that a new calculator called HP Prime is coming, but this calculator is a new model for graphics...

Does anyone know if HP is about to release a new top scientific one, such as 35s? I want to know, because if a new scientific model is coming I'd rather wait for it than getting another 35s!

Thanks!

[Garth Wilson]

(06-05-2018 05:53 PM)panel123 Wrote:  Does anyone know if HP is about to release a new top scientific one, such as 35s?

I think HP is done with this kind of thing. It is no longer the company it once was. Their last new calculator I know of was the Prime which has been out quite a few years now and is something I have no use for. I think they've lost touch.

[Thomas Radtke]

The 35s came out in 2007. Bugs and the missing R<>P conversion aside, it is still impressive. Can't imagine HP could come up with a significantly improved model based on this concept. Also, I believe RPL is dead for there's no market anymore.

Just get another 35s.

[Steve Simpkin]

I think the only *potentially* profitable marketplace for scientific or graphics calculators is the education market and TI already has most of that market (at least in the US). HP currently sells the HP 35s for use where it is approved during testing and the HP Prime for classroom use. Who else would spend $50 or $120 on a "Calculator" except for students which are forced to. Even though the HP 35s is 11 years old and the Prime just turned 5, why would HP, the Corporation decide to make make any other model? Who would buy it?

Myself, I go out of my way to use one of my HP calculators whenever I can but I am a dinosaur. I am not normal and HP would loose money if they focused on marking calculators that would appeal to me. The last new calculator I bought to use for work was my HP-48SX in 1991. That $300 calculator would have cost $550 in today's dollars. No one in their right mind would spend that kind of money today on a calculator.

What HP is selling today for calculators makes perfect business sense for today's market.

[grsbanks]

(06-05-2018 05:53 PM)panel123 Wrote:  So, I have to buy a new one, and I started looking around for new HP calculators, the only thing that I found out is that a new calculator called HP Prime is coming, but this calculator is a new model for graphics...

Err... The Prime has been out for about 5 years already.

If what you want is a non-graphing, RPN scientific then your options are somewhat limited if you want something new.

If second hand is still OK then you'll no doubt find another 35S on Amazon or the well-known auction site.

If you want new but still in the mindset and philosophy of HP (or what HP used to be) then there's always SwissMicros, who have clones of the HP-11C, HP-15C, HP-41CX and HP-42S.

[burkhard]

(06-05-2018 07:59 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  If what you want is a non-graphing, RPN scientific then your options are somewhat limited if you want something new.

If second hand is still OK then you'll no doubt find another 35S on Amazon or the well-known auction site.

I think if the original poster liked the 35s, why not just buy a new one? it is still manufactured, is it not?

At the very least, it is easily available new at a decent price. Amazon (US) has them brandy new for $54 from Amazon itself, not a 3rd party vendor.

Or you can go straight to hp (if you can find the right page... it's not so easy) But here's the direct link:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-35s-sc...itle_r0001

It seems like normal navigation from the "HP Calculator Page" only gets me to "Displays & Accessories" (nothing to do with calculators at all!) and it's been like that for months I think. Nobody must care anymore.
To see what I mean:
Click here: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/prodserv/calculator.html
Then attempt to click on "Learn More" under any of the three calculators pictured.

I can only assume they have zero marketing people assigned to the calculator product line anymore.

[Eric Rechlin]

Sounds like you probably just want to buy another 35s.

Your only other options in the pocketable scientific range are community-created calculators -- the WP-34s (based on the 30b), and the SwissMicros DM42, but both of those are far more expensive than the 35s.

The DM42 wins my vote but it also costs over $200 which makes it a very niche model.

(Edit: 34s to 35s)

[Gene]

(06-05-2018 09:54 PM)Eric Rechlin Wrote:  Your only other options in the pocketable scientific range are community-created calculators -- the WP-34s (based on the 30b), and the SwissMicros DM42, but both of those are far more expensive than the 34s.

Typo: "both of those are far more expensive than the 35s."

I suspect? :-)

[Garth Wilson]

(06-05-2018 07:59 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  If you want new but still in the mindset and philosophy of HP (or what HP used to be) then there's always SwissMicros, who have clones of the HP-11C, HP-15C, HP-41CX and HP-42S.

+1, except that Swiss Micros' 41 does not have HPIL, the whole reason I got into the 41 in 1986.

[grsbanks]

(06-05-2018 09:35 PM)burkhard Wrote:  At the very least, it is easily available new at a decent price. Amazon (US) has them brandy new for $54 from Amazon itself, not a 3rd party vendor.

Just shows how we get ripped off here in the UK. You can still get them new from Amazon UK as well but they cost between £50 and £80 here ($70 to $110).

If someone has never known any other RPN calculator then the 35S might seem pretty good. I have known others and because of this the 35S just seems plain clunky to me; I could never recommend it. And yes, I do own one, but I never use it!

[tcab]

(06-05-2018 07:59 PM)burkhard Wrote:  Or you can go straight to hp (if you can find the right page... it's not so easy) But here's the direct link:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-35s-sc...itle_r0001

It seems like normal navigation from the "HP Calculator Page" only gets me to "Displays & Accessories" (nothing to do with calculators at all!) and it's been like that for months I think. Nobody must care anymore.
To see what I mean:
Click here: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/prodserv/calculator.html
Then attempt to click on "Learn More" under any of the three calculators pictured.

I can only assume they have zero marketing people assigned to the calculator product line anymore.

What you say is true. I reported this bug in their website several months ago and got no response. Nothing has changed. So sad when corporate employees don't care.

[grsbanks]

(06-06-2018 10:14 AM)tcab Wrote:  What you say is true.

Except that I didn't say that!

[tcab]

@grsbanks sorry - have corrected the attribution of the quote. Nested quotes and editing on a fiddly tablet...

[burkhard]

(06-06-2018 10:14 AM)tcab Wrote:  What you say is true. I reported this bug in their website several months ago and got no response. Nothing has changed. So sad when corporate employees don't care.

I tried to do that myself just now, and I can't even figure out how to do so. There doesn't seem to be any "report a problem with this website" link. All the help/support links they want you to furnish an item number and look at FAQs. There is (buried) a calculator forum, but it doesn't seem to get much traffic and you need to register to use it... no guest access.

[Tim Wessman]

Has nothing to do with lack of caring... it has to do with being a very tiny cog (the calculator group) in a very large machine and 0 influence on how things work when other more important things are taking up the time of people that are the only ones that can make changes to things...

I've passed it along again and hopefully this time we can get someone to fix things.

[Thomas Radtke]

(06-06-2018 02:53 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  [...] hopefully this time we can get someone to fix things.

... and build a 35sII .

Oh how I wish someone would.

[burkhard]

(06-06-2018 02:53 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  Has nothing to do with lack of caring... it has to do with being a very tiny cog (the calculator group) in a very large machine and 0 influence...

No hits against the HP calculator group, Tim, whom I assume is a small handful of hard-working stretched-thin engineers. Today happens to be my 30th anniversary in engineering with the company I started with in college. Well, there have been a couple spin-offs and a bunch of name changes, but I'm still in the same building. So I'm sympathetic to the plight of individual engineering groups within a larger concern.

That said, in today's age, a decent-functioning website is imperative to market consumer products. And, I would assume, each product range has a marketing staff (perhaps just of 1 or half of one, but someone) who handles those products. When the main entry for a product line on the company website has been broken for months, one would think that's a big deal, no? Maybe not for the company as a whole, but it is for that product line.

And the web site itself needs to have some "Report a technical problem with the web site" link. Obviously a large consumer company will have an expansive web presence and once in a while links get broken or mis-assigned. Someway for customers to report that should be an obvious imperative I would think.

We all here want to see HP remain in the business of making calculators. That's why it pains us to see the company shoot itself in the foot over really easy low-effort things. All that enormous work to create the Prime and its web page remains broken for an extended period. Huh?

Most of us on this forum here are crotchety old diehards who aren't thinking about whether to buy an HP or one of its competitors: TI / Casio / whatever. So, the website isn't so important for us. But for a highschool kid, or homeschooling parent, or student entering university, accessing product information is critically important to make an informed decision. If it's unobtainable, it sends out a bad message. "Should I go and buy this nifty Prime when the company buries the webpage so deep you need Google to find it every time, and most of the links are broken once I get there?" If I were that student, it would make me think the product is destined for a short life, so I would be advised to take my $ and hard-spent learning-curve hours elsewhere.

[rprosperi]

Although the Calculator area of the HP website has not been 'optimal' for some time, it always has been and remains easy to find at http://www.hp.com/calculators.

Once there though, I agree, clicking on any of the 3 "Learn More" links surprisingly takes one to the Displays and Accessories Store, rather than the presumed details about the 3 lines of machines (Financial, Scientific, Graphing). Once there, if you then click on Calculators in the left-side Category list, it brings you to a list of Calculators which are available for purchase. To me, this is where the really alarming news is, sending bad vibes to curious customers.

As of today, the USA HP.com store status is:

HP-300S+ Out of Stock
HP-10BII+ Available to purchase
HP-12C Out of Stock
HP Prime Out of Stock
HP-12CP Available to purchase
HP-10S+ Available to purchase
HP-17BII Available to purchase
HP-35S Out of stock

So 4 out of 8 models are out of stock, which is of significant concern, however those not available include the Prime and the 12C. How can anyone let that happen?!?

Maybe it would be better to have the status be something like "Will be back in stock soon" to distinguish them from soon to be discontinued products which begin their discontinued status as simply being Out of Stock for a while and then disappearing. But I digress, the entire website task force would have to be assembled to consider such a ridiculous policy change.

Sure, stock levels come and go, and no one stocks deeply any more (due to the 'just in time' supply system which apparently isn't) but this sends such a poor message to prospective customers.... someone needs to tell Meg!!

Tim - we know you can't fix these issues with just a quick email, etc. but presumably it's easier to have something done if folks notice and complain. (Just like this). Maybe it would be more helpful if such complaints appeared in the HP Support Forum?

[DA74254]

(06-06-2018 04:21 PM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  

(06-06-2018 02:53 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  [...] hopefully this time we can get someone to fix things.

... and build a 35sII .

Oh how I wish someone would.

1+

[tcab]

(06-06-2018 02:53 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  Has nothing to do with lack of caring... it has to do with being a very tiny cog (the calculator group) in a very large machine and 0 influence...

@Tim - I wasn't meaning to refer to you guys, the hard working developers. I was referring to whoever in HP looks after the website(s), and whoever in HP received my feedback email all that time ago. Though... it probably does help to have email escalations through management from you guys - once a week till its fixed ;-) Ironically, when I used to escalate the same broken issue multiple times in corporate situations, eventually management gets annoyed with - me, so take care!

@burkhard - Yes it was almost impossible to figure out how to send that feedback to HP, not sure how I did it, in the end, but I did.

Aside: Neglected dusty corporate websites are one sad problem. A new one arising are AI bots. I used to be able to send an email to my bank - now I get a 'smart AI bot' to talk to which just redirects me to FAQs and offers apologies on how its 'still learning'. No doubt some group in management at the bank are popping champagne and celebrating their bonuses on introducing the latest hot thing (hype) AI, reducing the workforce and saving the bank money. Sigh. Contrast this with small and medium sized companies with a tight, clean, well maintained websites and proper customer support. Running companies and getting corporate culture and workflows right is a hard problem.