Interesting article on the TI-84 and the graphing calculator market

[Don Shepherd]

Well, this subject has been discussed in this and other forums ad nauseum. TI has a lock on the education calculator market, at least in the US. The main reason for this is that TI has created a nation-wide network of training and support functions for math teachers and offers substantial discounts for calculators supplied for classroom use. Teachers then recommend TI calculators for their students, and parents are willing to spend the bucks so their child won't get left behind. It doesn't hurt the cause that the TI-84 calculators, while certainly not worth $100, are not bad calculators.

The future of calculators in education is anybody's guess, but my hunch is that smartphones (or whatever they morph into during the next decade), along with citizens growing resistance to be willing to pour more millions and millions of dollars into "technology" in the public schools, will change this landscape significantly. If HP was smart, it would be thinking about developing products for this changing world. I don't think the HP Prime is the answer.