Could the 38E/C have been the standard?

[bshoring]

(01-22-2019 08:11 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Hi all.

Although the 12C has become the standard of financial calculator excellence and has established itself as the essential financial calculator, how and why didn’t the 38C become the business calc essential?

Also, where does the 17B-II+ fit in in comparison to the 12C?

Back to the HP-38C, I think for a few years it was the standard or the ultimate in Financial calculators. Until the Spice series and the HP-92 came out, HP kept trying new formats with financials. They got it right with the 38C and also the HP-92 which allows full interchangeability among the financial functions. No previous calc had that flexibility. The way the functions work in the 38C is exactly the way they have worked in the 12C all these decades. Of course the 12C added depreciation and bonds. On the 38C they have to be programmed in. I personally prefer the vertical format of the 38C over the 12C, especially for work when I am holding the device in my hand. HP went back to a vertical format after the Voyagers.

Back in 1982 after the HP-12C had been out for 6 months, a tech store owner in San Francisco's Financial District told me that the HP-38C was still their best selling calculator.

Namir well lays out the ways in which the 12C is a superior machine. To that I can add that it seems to have the "cool factor." HP did come up with a winner with the 12C. However HP continued manufacturing the HP-38C for nearly 2 years after the 12C came out, and they continued to sell well, albeit at reduced prices.

Despite the obvious superiority of the HP-12C, the HP-38C is still my favorite. I'm on my 3rd.

Bob