HP-12C Platinum EOL?

[Don Shepherd]

I think Cyrille is a man of specifics too, and if he said 12c, he meant 12c.

I'd be surprised if the 12c Platinum is still being sold, frankly.

I don't think HP will be discontinuing the 12c in our lifetimes.

[JDW]

(09-15-2020 01:24 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  I think Cyrille is a man of specifics too, and if he said 12c, he meant 12c.
I'd be surprised if the 12c Platinum is still being sold, frankly.

Then I am totally confused and confounded.

To reiterate what I said in my previous post...

The HP USA Financial Calculator page, at the time I created my opening post, listed ONLY the "12-C Platinum" and the normal "12-C" (Gold) was no where to be found. Again, I cannot reconfirm that today because of the silly blue screen of death when I try to access the Financial Calc page.

If indeed you are correct in that the PLATINUM has possibly been discontinued and only the 12-C (NOT "Platinum") remains in production, it makes ZERO SENSE that only the Platinum can/could be found in the HP USA Calculator store!

From what I have read on the 12-C Wiki, the newest edition 12-C (gold) has a much faster ARM processor than the Platinum, although I have also read the Platinum is about 6x faster than the 1981 edition 12-C's processor. So when we ponder that, what you said makes sense that the 12-C (NOT "Platinum) is the superior edition that logic dictates SHOULD still be sold. And yet, the fact is, it is no where to be found on the HP USA web store AND when searching for "12-C" on Amazon, the PLATINUM version appears as the first two results and Platinum is the only one marked "Amazon's Choice."

And since I am on the topic of Amazon, can someone verify if indeed the following two calculators are the latest versions still in production?

1. 12-C Platinum
2. 12-C

[EdS2]

Cyrille is of course constrained in what he can say. He will be truthful, to the best of his knowledge, so the challenge is to find hypotheses which fit the facts. Here are some possibilities

- the retail side of HP's web site is not well-maintained and may bear little relation to stock levels or future plans

- there has been a hiatus in production which one might expect will be limited, and production will pick up again

- there is an HP-12C future in the pipeline but it isn't the Platinum

I'm sure there are more possibilities.

It would be unfair to want more from Cyrille than he has said already, or to pressure or trick him into revealing more. It would be unfair to suggest that he isn't being as helpful as he could be.

[rprosperi]

The 2 versions shown on the Amazon links are the latest versions of each, they both show that 2 x CR2032 batteries are required.

And as a point of how poorly the website is maintained/updated, the last time I checked, the specs for the 12C still show that only 1 battery is required, which has not been correct since around 2013. It seems the Accessories group think that since the model number has not changed, there is no reason to update the listing. The fact that it was re-implemented with new h/w design does not seem to have interested them. Again, these products are totally different from what they are used to.

It's possible (likely) that the Pandemic has caused disruption of planned production and if HP had to prioritize, they may have decided to produce the more expensive model and defer the 12C. The actual component costs of the 2 models are very likely quite close, so if you can only produce and sell one for a limited period, the expensive one makes more sense.

Finally, even though you asked about the 12CP, the context implied the 12C may have been discontinued, so Cyrille likely was clarifying that it was not. And Ed's point is good as well, Cyrille is not at liberty to comment on many facets of what is happening, and likely not even aware of others (such as website current listings), so he simply is correcting what may have been interpreted by readers as a product discontinuation. I also agree that 12C production will outlive me. I think that's good...

[BruceH]

I think you're all reading way too much into what Cyrille said. He simply said that the 12 wasn't discontinued and, true enough, you can buy one new on Amazon.

The fact that HP can't seem to manage to sell it direct is a different problem entirely.