Smartphone killed the calculator star. Some thoughts... and data too

[Sadsilence]

(02-09-2016 03:34 AM)Joseph_21sv Wrote:  A feeling that smartphones, PCs/laptops, tablets, whatever second party is the death for advanced calculators outside of education is ignoring the unbroken run of advanced calculator faux pas by Casio, HP and TI since the end of the 1980s. This began with the cost cutting on the HP-42S which caused suspicion that HP were cowed by examination regulation boards, the faulty mechanics of the clamshell design of the HP-18C and 28C, the awkward way the HP-17B and 42S support user entry of alphabetic characters and the controversial programming model of the HP-17B, 18C and 27S, all of which dishonored advanced calculators and did much to drive scientists, engineers and technicians into far more expensive PC/laptop+CAS setups. None of these groups really wanted to do it because it meant less money they could save for their personal lives, and heaven knows, they could not all have been career people. In other words, the real death for advanced calculators was the chaos at their own place.

You may be right. I came to vintage calculators after dropping my HP-28S back from student days from my desk around end of 2014. Otherwise it would still work. For years it was a reliable number cruncher and I started looking for a modern replacement. HP Prime, TI nSpire. Wonderful and powerful tools with a bad keyboard and a dschungel of menus where I previously only had to press one or two keys. Then an HP-35S. It fits better to my needs but keyboard is a shame compared to what was possible 30-40 years ago! What happened between end of 1980's and 2013 I am not really aware of.

Nevertheless I quit sophisticated calculations on my calculator when starting job career. Stuff I use here belongs to company. So money is not key point for useing it. And we all use a PC etc. at home, so it is already there. Of course it is fun to play around e.g. with an HP-41, an HP-3468 and using an HP82143 printer to monitor battery charging, but every microcontrolled charger is doing the same with much less effort.

It is a little bit like horses and cars. Even excited horse men/women does not use it as "transport vehicle" but just for fun. Still horses are beautiful and strong animals, but their time as main mobility factor is gone..