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

[Steve Simpkin]

(02-10-2016 09:27 PM)Luigi Vampa Wrote:  Just curious... does anybody know at which point in time Mr. Hewlett no longer followed up the calculators business unit?
Maybe it was when HP designs started to depart from its roots.

I think that would be a hard question to answer. Bill Hewlett officially retired from HP around 1987 and I am not sure how closely he was personally involved with the various HP divisions (let alone the calculator division) in the 80's. I suspect the bigger factor in the reduction of calculator engineering spending at HP had to do with calculators becoming a smaller part of their overall business and the declining importance of calculators in general in the workforce.

[rpn fan]

I have free42 and andro15c emulators on my Nexus 6 phone. The programs work. That said, I have punching "buttons" on a smartphone screen. It's the same reason why a tablet can never take the place of a laptop for me.

(01-31-2016 10:10 PM)Luigi Vampa Wrote:  Hi all,

I just wanted to share with all forum members some information I happened to find. I asked 'Google Trends' about how the interest on some top brands has varied over the last decade, and I was shocked about the answer:

Google Trends - HP, TI and Casio calculators

It seems the interest in calculators (in general) has dropped to ca. one tenth over the last decade!

I remember begging my big brother for his Casio Scientific Calc in the early 80's. I felt the king of the world with my HP28s by the late 80's... yes, RPN (in my University) was said to be 'only for the braves'. Nevertheless, now it seems calculators will soon fall into the 'only for the nostalgist, if any' category :./