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Why no SOLVE & INTEGRATE commands on the 41C?
01-15-2020, 01:46 AM
Post: #7
RE: Why no SOLVE & INTEGRATE commands on the 41C?
There's also an important marketing consideration. The 34C was still a relatively new machine, and it had both of these features. There no doubt was plenty of market demand from folks that needed these features but didn't need (or could not afford) all that a 41 offered. The 41 could have included them (notwithstanding issues like ROM space and available opcodes) but that would have essentially 'obsoleted' the 34C less than a year after introduction.

Look closely at all the fancy feature analysis brochures of the period comparing the various models. Every model has some features none of the other models offered, thus letting HP offer a wider product family at many price points. In the 70s/80s, these were important marketing considerations demanded by retailers that wanted to have offerings at many price points, and the smart manufacturers tried hard to supply something at as many price points as they could.

By offering these features in a HP Application Pac, it offered parity with the 41C (plus even more) but at about twice the price.

While it seems like an odd oversight looking back, I think they had pretty clear vision looking forward.

--Bob Prosperi
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RE: Why no SOLVE & INTEGRATE commands on the 41C? - rprosperi - 01-15-2020 01:46 AM



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