Multiline HP15C

[burkhard]

Quote:I am not so sure about that, at least if "awful lot" has a totally different meaning for us. It would be interesting to know how many units Swiss Micros are selling, but that number must be as close to "awful lot" as it possibly gets. So I think that geeky calculators will always remain a small niche market for tinkerers and enthusiats who feed that market more for their own pleasure than for a profit.

Yeah, I didn't mean to overstate things. I agree it is a niche market, a small fraction of what existed in the 80s and 90s. No argument there. I only think that there are a lot of RPN-favoring geeks out there who don't know about Swiss Micros or other such modern endeavors.

A few personal anecdotes:

• A year or so back, a work colleague bemoaned to me the passing of his HP41CX. I pointed him to the Swiss Micros site, whence he immediately purchased a DM-41L, which he loves. He hasn't started a big collection or jumped into forums, &c., but he likes that DM41L.

• Another colleague was telling me how much he loved his 15C and was sorry he missed out on the 15C LE (he just wasn't aware of it until it was too late). I pointed him to Swiss Micros. He was most intrigued. He said he would have surely purchased a DM15L, but he had already just bought an HP-35s.

• A couple of years back, I was completely out of the "HP calc scene" and had never heard of the WP-34s, but happened to stumble upon it on YouTube somehow. "Wow, this is amazing! This project has been going on for 5 years and I've been ignorant of it?". I jumped in then, but I would have done so much sooner had I known. I have since built a few, gotten active on here, and acquired some other old HPs as well (particularly the 41C series).

Sure, we see the size of the current small niche. Those folks are the really hardcore HP fans who have mostly been active in online groups for many years. I think the real market is bigger...still a niche, but many times larger. My experience tells me there are a lot of dormant HP RPN fans out there, people who don't frequent the varied websites / boards, but still use an old HP or wish they still had their old one. Make them aware (like me and my friends) and there are more sales. For something that has significant investment / fixed costs hurdles to meet before becoming feasible, that's important.

Finally, I agree w.r.t. Walter. Characters, especially highly creative ones, make every group / organization more interesting and fun.