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frontier · 08-06-2020, 11:38 AM

Greetings, All....
I posted a thread a while back about having to eventually replace my 49G+, due to a failing screen. The time has come, but a visit to HP's site has been quite disappointing. I can understand not having a link for calculators on the home screen, so I had to use the search bar. Several category choices popped up (e.g., financial, scientific, graphing), but when you click "graphing," literally nothing comes up. I then poked around more deeply; lo and behold, it appears (to me, at least) that HP doesn't even sell their own graphing calculators. Is this true? I know I can't buy a new 49G+ anymore, but don't they still make the Prime? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Marco Polo · 08-06-2020, 12:12 PM

(08-06-2020 11:38 AM)frontier Wrote: Greetings, All....
I posted a thread a while back about having to eventually replace my 49G+, due to a failing screen. The time has come, but a visit to HP's site has been quite disappointing. I can understand not having a link for calculators on the home screen, so I had to use the search bar. Several category choices popped up (e.g., financial, scientific, graphing), but when you click "graphing," literally nothing comes up. I then poked around more deeply; lo and behold, it appears (to me, at least) that HP doesn't even sell their own graphing calculators. Is this true? I know I can't buy a new 49G+ anymore, but don't they still make the Prime? Thanks in advance for any insight.

AFAIK Prime is currently being produced and continuously improved.
You can buy as new it from several sources.
49g+ is not produced anylonger since 2006, if I remember correctly.
You can buy a 50g (a slight evolution of 49g+, with better keyboard, color scheme and a serial port) even if discontinued from the well known auction site. Used, of course, even though some never used units may be found

Cheers

Thomas Okken · 08-06-2020, 12:20 PM

(08-06-2020 12:12 PM)Marco Polo Wrote: AFAIK Prime is currently being produced and continuously improved.
You can buy as new it from several sources.

You wouldn't know it from HP's own web site, though. If you go to shop.hp.com, there is no indication there that I can find that HP even sells calculators at all, and when I Google "HP Prime", the top hit at hp.com is https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/prim...rview.html which doesn't seem to provide a way to actually buy the thing. Either HP is getting out of the calculator business, or they screwed up their latest web site update...

Marco Polo · 08-06-2020, 01:04 PM

(08-06-2020 12:20 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote: You wouldn't know it from HP's own web site, though. If you go to shop.hp.com, there is no indication there that I can find that HP even sells calculators at all, and when I Google "HP Prime", the top hit at hp.com is https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/prim...rview.html which doesn't seem to provide a way to actually buy the thing. Either HP is getting out of the calculator business, or they screwed up their latest web site update...

Anyway this is not good :-(
I am just thinking that the only way to continue using and RPL calculator when my 48gx and the two 50g's will be gone is EMU48.....
Unless Swissmicros.... ;-)

frontier · 08-06-2020, 01:23 PM

I also get the www8.... site. So that settles it. They're not making the effort to market graphing calculators. I also have noticed that HP's support used to be first class, but now it's outsourced overseas. "The times they are a-changin'...."

smartin · 08-06-2020, 01:52 PM

(08-06-2020 11:38 AM)frontier Wrote: Greetings, All....
I posted a thread a while back about having to eventually replace my 49G+, due to a failing screen. The time has come, but a visit to HP's site has been quite disappointing. I can understand not having a link for calculators on the home screen, so I had to use the search bar. Several category choices popped up (e.g., financial, scientific, graphing), but when you click "graphing," literally nothing comes up. I then poked around more deeply; lo and behold, it appears (to me, at least) that HP doesn't even sell their own graphing calculators. Is this true? I know I can't buy a new 49G+ anymore, but don't they still make the Prime? Thanks in advance for any insight.

I recently wanted to purchase the latest version of the Prime and I had the same experience with the HP web site. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a G2 Prime on Amazon.

pinkman · 08-06-2020, 10:58 PM

I had the same disappointing feeling, and it seems that the links are ok from the US, but not from Europe. (https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-15324.html)

Amazon or similar will be your friend for this time.

**rprosperi** · 08-07-2020, 01:36 AM

(08-06-2020 12:20 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:
(08-06-2020 12:12 PM)Marco Polo Wrote: AFAIK Prime is currently being produced and continuously improved.
You can buy as new it from several sources.

You wouldn't know it from HP's own web site, though. If you go to shop.hp.com, there is no indication there that I can find that HP even sells calculators at all, and when I Google "HP Prime", the top hit at hp.com is https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/prim...rview.html which doesn't seem to provide a way to actually buy the thing. Either HP is getting out of the calculator business, or they screwed up their latest web site update...

Why do you say "Either" ? Pretty clear it's some of both. Prime f/w updates will likely continue, and the financial models and 35S will likely be sold until there are no more buyers (if that ever happens - 50 years for 12C Production?), but otherwise it's best to not expect much more.

And besides, the folks updating the website are too busy creating listings for mice: red ones, blue ones, grey ones, white ones, small ones, big ones, fancy ones, plain ones, etc. You know, the stuff buyers really want!

Maximilian Hohmann · 08-07-2020, 11:42 AM

Hello!

(08-07-2020 01:36 AM)rprosperi Wrote: And besides, the folks updating the website are too busy creating listings for mice: red ones, blue ones, grey ones, white ones, small ones, big ones, fancy ones, plain ones, etc. You know, the stuff buyers really want!

But I'm afraid these are the things that actually get purchased in large numbers. Last week I went to an electronics store because I needed a larger memory card for my camera.
Next to the cashiers, where unusually long queues form due to the required Covid ditances, they have now placed large boxes with exactly that kind of stuff: Colorful mice, colorful USB travel chargers, keyring torches, useless mobile phone accessories,... all things one usually would not even think about.
And people actually do pick up that crap because there is nothing better to do while you wait in the queue. Such a mouse costs nothing to develop, very little (30 Cents?) to manufacture in China yet they sell it for close to 10 Euros. By the millions. Compare that to smart calculators which cost large sums to develop and quite a lot to manufacture becuause of the small numbers. If I were HP I would sell colorful mice too.

Regards
Max

0culus · (This post was last modified: 08-08-2020 03:17 AM by 0culus.)

Aside from the 12C, I reckon calculator sales to professionals is a dying business.

Back in the day, a purchase like an HP-65 or 67 or 41C or similar was a pretty big layout of capital for a machine that you would use for serious computational tasks.

Not anymore.

Most calculators are used at school...and TI owns that market lock, stock, and barrel. To the point that modern textbooks are usually written with instructions for TI calculators only. I was an avid HP user through my schooling and I never once met another one, and teachers were always telling me "you're on your own, I can't help you if you have trouble".

I've met a few more HP enthusiasts professionally, but they seem to be quite rare. Most people just use their computer if they need to do serious computation or their smartphone. I admit that I rarely use my HP-50g anymore for graphing or CAS...I have Maple, MATLAB, and Python for all that. I do use my HP scientific machines regularly though. :o)

pinkman · 08-08-2020, 10:42 AM

I experienced the same with teachers disappointed in front of an HP in the late 80’s... But the classroom was divided in 4 parts: 30% Casio, 30% TI, 30% Sharp, 10% HP. All HP owners now work in computer science!
For my kids I was asked to buy quite only TI’s, one Casio and one NumWorks.
My daughter told me her classmates did not like the HP Prime because there was no real games for it (TI and NumWorks have ports of the gameboy emulator).

From a professional point of view, using a calculator with paper and pen will not avoid us to create a pdf with the results, nice tables of values, and even an Excel sheet to communicate the data source. The calculator is obsolete in this environment. Sad

0culus · (This post was last modified: 08-10-2020 04:37 AM by 0culus.)

Yeah, most younger professionals in STEM aren't using calculators. The ones I know who do keep calculators on their desk at my work are definitely more senior types. Personally, I value sitting down and problem solving without a PC. Thus, I'm always using calculators, scientific at least. Ultimately, deliverables will have to be done on the computer, but the back of the napkin type work is where a scientific calculator shines.

grsbanks · 08-10-2020, 06:38 AM

(08-08-2020 10:42 AM)pinkman Wrote: For my kids I was asked to buy quite only TI’s, one Casio and one NumWorks.
My daughter told me her classmates did not like the HP Prime because there was no real games for it (TI and NumWorks have ports of the gameboy emulator).

Young people today.... Everything has to be a toy!

I remember from my days as a "Lycéen" in France that TI were popular there. The Lycée I was in even struck a deal with the local TI rep and most of us got TI-57 Programmables dirt cheap (this was 1983/84 so they were probably trying to get rid of the old LED calculators). A few waited a bit and got the TI-57 LCD new.

I wasn't interested even with the cut down price. I already had the HP-15C by then...

pinkman · 08-10-2020, 07:47 AM

(08-10-2020 04:35 AM)0culus Wrote: Yeah, most younger professionals in STEM aren't using calculators. The ones I know who do keep calculators on their desk at my work are definitely more senior types. Personally, I value sitting down and problem solving without a PC. Thus, I'm always using calculators, scientific at least. Ultimately, deliverables will have to be done on the computer, but the back of the napkin type work is where a scientific calculator shines.

I do the same, but I am in the senior class, and even my senior colleagues laugh at me because of the HP calc always on my desk... (most often a 17bII, sometimes a scientific).

toml_12953 · 08-10-2020, 10:43 AM

(08-06-2020 01:23 PM)frontier Wrote: I also get the www8.... site. So that settles it. They're not making the effort to market graphing calculators. I also have noticed that HP's support used to be first class, but now it's outsourced overseas. "The times they are a-changin'...."

Back in the HP 65/67 days the only alternative to a programmable calculator was time sharing on a mini or mainframe and that could cost thousands of dollars a month. Today, almost everyone has a smartphone in their pocket that has more computational power than anything widely available back then. Why spend $100-$200 for a dedicated calculator when an emulator can be had for little or no cost? Not only are they cheap, but they are many orders of magnitude faster than the real thing in most cases.

Maximilian Hohmann · (This post was last modified: 08-10-2020 11:51 AM by Maximilian Hohmann.)

Hello!

(08-10-2020 10:43 AM)toml_12953 Wrote: Back in the HP 65/67 days the only alternative to a programmable calculator was time sharing on a mini or mainframe and that could cost thousands of dollars a month.

I would rather say that the alternative to an HP65/67 would have been a programmable desktop calculator. They became available a decade before the HP65, either from HP themselves or (somewhat cheaper) from companies like Compucorp, Olivetti, Wang, ... They were still rather expensive and maybe only one per department would be acquired, but cheap compared to a mainframe. In the mid 1970ies even our school had a Compucorp calculator on a trolley that only teachers were allowed to touch, operate and demonstrate.

The big change that the HP65/67 and Ti SR52 brought about what that from then on every scientist or engineer or statistician or mathematician could have his own scientific progammable calculator for himself.

Regards
Max

Valentin Albillo · 08-10-2020, 02:05 PM

(08-10-2020 10:43 AM)toml_12953 Wrote: Today, almost everyone has a smartphone in their pocket that has more computational power than anything widely available back then.

You can delete that "widely" qualifier. And the "almost" is almost removable too.

V.

toml_12953 · 08-10-2020, 10:43 PM

(08-10-2020 02:05 PM)Valentin Albillo Wrote:
(08-10-2020 10:43 AM)toml_12953 Wrote: Today, almost everyone has a smartphone in their pocket that has more computational power than anything widely available back then.

You can delete that "widely" qualifier. And the "almost" is almost removable too.

V.

The term widely referred to desktop programmable calculators. They were available but not to everyone. We had no access to one around here, for example. Also in the US, there are many people who don't have a smartphone.

0culus · 08-10-2020, 11:14 PM

(08-10-2020 10:43 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:
(08-06-2020 01:23 PM)frontier Wrote: I also get the www8.... site. So that settles it. They're not making the effort to market graphing calculators. I also have noticed that HP's support used to be first class, but now it's outsourced overseas. "The times they are a-changin'...."

Back in the HP 65/67 days the only alternative to a programmable calculator was time sharing on a mini or mainframe and that could cost thousands of dollars a month. Today, almost everyone has a smartphone in their pocket that has more computational power than anything widely available back then. Why spend $100-$200 for a dedicated calculator when an emulator can be had for little or no cost? Not only are they cheap, but they are many orders of magnitude faster than the real thing in most cases.

Smartphone emulators work great (I have several on my phone) but they totally miss the intangibles of using a real classic HP machine though. Especially in the tactile department.

Sukiari · 08-12-2020, 12:44 AM

Remember how wishy washy the new HP was when the 50g was finally discontinued? Looks like we’re in for a repeat of that.