Why do calculator manufactures like to reinvent the wheel?

[HP67]

(03-11-2014 01:12 PM)Angus Wrote:  Having higher powered hardware at hand developers are easily mislead into designing a kind of consumer-like device. Say a smartphone. No need to be carefully engineered. It will be thrown away soon enough... No need to spend too much time in details.

You know, this is really on the mark. I was reading a thread the other day on a mailing list and they were discussing cheap Android phones from China. It turns out that they are selling millions of Android devices with no update capability. It is just as you said, they are designed to be disposable from the get-go. I just don't understand this approach, and if I could understand it I don't agree with it. I'm used to working on stuff that has a fairly long lifetime, and although today things are not what they used to be, we used to take the time to design stuff to last. The very idea that people could spend millions on R&D and tooling that they know will be obsolete in a few years is scary. And yet that is exactly what's happening. It's partially because of the growth and progress in hardware development but also partially because people have a disposable mentality.

On the other hand, my HP 67 is still perfectly useful today. For programming the HP 48 is a gigantic step ahead and a visible stack helps in long calculations. I like stuff made well, made to last. That's what the HP I knew and loved was all about. I realize those days are mostly gone, but should we be considered nuts for still valuing that?

(03-11-2014 01:12 PM)Angus Wrote:  I fully understand HP67's thinking and argumentation (plus I do share it mostly), but HP needs to do proper work on such devices otherwise people like me don't trust in solid developed devices for too long.

I believe you would find a 50g much more to your liking. The Prime isn't for the traditional HP calculator consumer. Tim has said it and we all know it. It's HP's attempt to break into the education market that TI has ruled for decades already. I hope they succeed, because variety and choices are good. But no matter what, we're still up against manufacturing techniques and materials choices that are going to make any new device disposable. I read a post on here that talked about the problems of lead-free solder and I asked some friends of mine in engineering and one guy who is a wizard in tech. They told me the clock is ticking on this stuff from the minute it comes off the reflow bench.

(03-11-2014 01:12 PM)Angus Wrote:  Althogh my pedantic, engineering innermost hopes that quality will be victorious and the calculator will survive. Evolved, yes please.

I'm always glad to see someone else who gives a damn, because I often feel like there are not enough people like that any more.