HP 30b

[Joseph_21sv]

(01-24-2016 03:20 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  

(01-24-2016 06:23 AM)Gerald H Wrote:  My 30b has software version 5 4 2012.

Yes, April 5, 2012 was the last firmware release date AFAIK.

As to the OP summary of the 30b ..... It is a bit awkward to use and program but it is very fast with some powerful functions. I suspect that it died a relatively early death because it just didn't attract business from the financial community.

HP has a long history of trying to replace the venerable 12C with something more powerful: the 18c, 19b/ii, 27s, 17b/ii/+, 20b/30b, etc.. However, the financial community just wants the good old 12c and so they keep making that and have dropped all the others.

Well then, it still wandered in production limbo (after a manner of speaking) for ca. 2 years.

As to why it died from just not attracting business from pretty much any user community at all, the OP summary should be perfectly noncontroversial, at least for anyone who pays attention to how advanced calculators are designed, particularly in the realm of display interface.

As to HP's alleged attempts to replace the 12c with something more powerful, there are bigger reasons for them failing than the financial community just wanting that calculator:
17b, 18c, 19b and 27s no RPN entry, nor programmable in a conventional way
moreover:
18c and 19b severe mechanical flaw (for which see this Wikipedia entry)
18c just not enough memory for its programming model to be very useful,
27s in reality a scientific calculator with business functions pre-programmed
17bii(+) and 19bii in spite of RPN entry still not programmable in a conventional way, therefore no longer really seen as attempts to replace it
20b in spite of RPN entry and unprecedented built-in functions and speed not programmable in any way and no key feedback and support for algebraic entry with immediate execution by default, being insistent on that logic to a fault, therefore not even possible to see as serious
30b at last programmable in a conventional way, but built upon a 20b with key feedback and not really marketed as programmable

Therefore, that is why I say that, upon release in 2010 and but for its 30 MHz processor, the 30b was already a severely belated release of what everybody thought the 14B was. However, the 30b at least might have been salvageable if HP were willing to salvage it. The biggest things HP, being willing, could have done to salvage it were: entirely drop immediate execution mode for algebraic entry, replacing this with continuous memory of which entry mode it was set to; remake it to use a conventional 2-line display; really market it as programmable and make it less awkward to enter alphanumeric messages into programs. In other words, it only wandered in production limbo and died an early death because HP was unwilling to do anything to salvage it.