Suggestions for new built-in hardware

[Frozen North]

Why should a calculator have some features currently reserved for smart phones or tablets? Well, why use a calculator instead of a smart phone or tablet?

1. The calculator is usually less expensive than a smart phone or tablet, perhaps by a large margin. So the calculator is cheaper to buy and cheaper to replace. A lower price makes it easier to buy a spare or two (home, work, auto) and easier to trade up to a better model.

2. The calculator has a keypad. This makes it far, far more easier to use than an unyielding, touch screen interface. If this weren't true, then most personal computers would use a touch screen instead of a keyboard. But no one who does a lot of typing or data entry uses a touch screen interface. On my iPad and my iPod Touch, I have many different calculator emulations (mostly HP and nearly all with RPN). I have tried all of these emulations from the HP-25C to the HP41-CX, and they all come in at second place to a calculator, even a calculator with cheap mushy keys.

3. A calculator rarely needs updating, so it doesn't need the infrastructure required for updating. The subtle corollary here is that the calculator developers know they may have just one chance to get it right; tablet developers might think they can always fix bugs with an upgrade. Come this summer, I'll have been programming for forty-five years and many times I've heard the adage "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over".