Why are the HP Prime and HP-35s so unpopular?

[Roberto Volpi]

(03-03-2021 09:46 PM)ElectroDuende Wrote:  I think the main problem about product quality decay (not only in calculators, but in general) is that the average consumer is not willing to pay what “the best product” costs to design and manufacture. Why do you think the commercial suburbs are full of “dollar stores”?

The 35s is cheaper than theirs predecessors had been, but it is still much more expensive than the competitors. And that is after being designed and manufactured in China by a subcontractor... imagine the cost of an in house development and manufacture...

How many people, apart of us, calculator geeks and lifetime fans of HP would pay that amount for “just a calculator”? HP would never recover such a investment...

I bought an HP48G while studying Electrical engineering in the 90’s and it was really a great help (and not only for the ability to store formulas!). Nowadays, (my intern, who has just finished his degree, has told me) they don’t use “so advanced calculators” because all calculations are done with computers... a simple Casio is enough for the kind of exercises they have to do without computer assistance.

Computers replaced calculators in companies and engineering offices long ago; now they have almost done in university, and high school is also on the way (my daughter is in 6th grade and we’ve already been forced to get a chromebook) and with such a shrinking market, I don’t expect much effort from any company to have “the best product”, sadly.

Back to the oldies, I still have my HP48G, took it to a course about solar power plants and gathered a lot of attention, but my daily office calc is a 32s II (and I keep a spare one, just in case!).

Cheers mates!

Perfectly right!

It is a nonsense today for a calculator trying to compete with PCs.

A calculator as the HP35S is specifically designed as an education tool.

If RPN and programmability is your cup of tea, it can also brilliantly solve every math problem in that no man land between calculation by mind and a PC.