43s status

[Bit]

(01-24-2015 08:06 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Why fabled new users? Because this won't be a cheap calculator, for the casual shopper. I fear there won't be so many of them beyond our community.

When I first mentioned the 34S to my father, he showed his ancient algebraic TI from the 1970s and exclaimed he didn't see much point in contorting the way he performs calculations if even the old device could do better. Then he got a 34S for Christmas along with a concise explanation of how RPN works and why it makes sense. A few weeks later he said something like he didn't understand why everybody wasn't using RPN.

I gave away nine 34S and 31S calculators (modified to be more user friendly) as Christmas presents and promised to deliver a tenth one. All to people who never used RPN before, and all (except my father) younger than what I estimate the average age could be here, four of them under 25. The calculators were well received and while I expect some will ultimately end up collecting dust, I can already see that many of them won't.

I don't know how successful the 43S can become if it realizes its full potential, but it will definitely depend on how much effort, both in terms of wise design decisions and also skillful communication, is being put into reaching out to a broader audience who aren't HP RPN fans already.