Voyager series 2nd edition discussion thread

[Joseph_21sv]

It has been much in my attention that the Voyager series—especially the 15C—ranks among the most dearly beloved HP calculators of this forum. However, not too many members seem very interested in openly airing their thoughts on a modern version of the series. Is it that you all have no very concrete ideas or that you do but are afraid no one will care to listen to them? Whichever it may be, here is a space where somebody will care to listen to whatever you are thinking however romantic/fantastic your concrete ideas may be. But first, a few questions about the more realistic parameters of your designs (assuming RPN logic and programmability):
1. Are they portrait or landscape orientation?
2. How bulky are they?
3. How alphanumeric are their displays?
4. Does the 10C, 12C or 16C have a separate second edition? If the 12C or 16C does not, do any of its/their features make it into the series?
5. How large is the memory of each calculator?

[PANAMATIK]

I do not understand, why HP made only a limited edition of the HP15C.

The prices in ebay for these items are very high now, sometimes 5 times obove the original price. Could anyone tell, who could have an interest at HP, to keep these prices high. Why not make a unlimited edition like the HP12C, until the demand will decrease? Or did they buildt the limited edition just as a gift for collectors without getting some little profit? Or do they fear, that it will be used for repurposing?

[Thomas Radtke]

What are your dislikes about the 15C? IMO it is as perfect as it can be, given the limitations (display, no menus, space for instructions about hidden features on the back). I wouldn't want it to be any different.

[John R]

(11-02-2014 10:27 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  I do not understand, why HP made only a limited edition of the HP15C.

The prices in ebay for these items are very high now, sometimes 5 times obove the original price. Could anyone tell, who could have an interest at HP, to keep these prices high. Why not make a unlimited edition like the HP12C, until the demand will decrease?

The demand supposedly evident for the HP-15C Limited Edition in the eBay market is not a good indicator of the demand for this kind of item in the commercial market. First of all, the people buying and selling the HP-15C LE on eBay are treating the item as a collectible -- NOT as a consumer good to actually use -- and the prices are thus speculative. Second, the volume of HP-15C LE calculators bought and sold on eBay is actually very small. It looks like only one or two of these change hands per week, on average. (And some of those are probably the same items being bought and sold by a small pool of people.)

I suspect that most people who were willing to pay approximately $100 for an item like the HP-15C LE actually did so when it was available from Hewlett Packard a few years ago. If there was a deeper demand for this kind of item at this kind of price, HP probably just would have extended the "limited" edition and made a larger profit. If HP began selling calculators from a new HP-15C production run tomorrow, I suspect they would see a short-lived spike in purchases from speculative buyers treating it as a collectible, but not enough extended demand to actually turn a profit. The speculative eBay market would crash, and lots of people on this forum would probably buy another HP-15C or two to actually use for fun and work. :-)

[Didier Lachieze]

Some time ago there was several 15C LE for sale on eBay in Europe for ~60€. There was no case nor gift box, this was likely a stock from support. 36 units were sold over 14 days. So not a huge demand despite the low price.

[ElectroDuende]

(11-02-2014 06:10 PM)Didier Lachieze Wrote:  Some time ago there was several 15C LE for sale on eBay in Europe for ~60€. There was no case nor gift box, this was likely a stock from support. 36 units were sold over 14 days. So not a huge demand despite the low price.

I got one of those as a spare. It had some small marks on the aluminum bezel painting, but apart from that it works perfectly, and the keyboard has no issues (This was my biggest fear). The same seller also had a nice ammount of 50G, 35S and 17BII+ for super low prices, but seem to depleted now...

[Joseph_21sv]

(11-02-2014 11:17 AM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  What are your dislikes about the 15C? IMO it is as perfect as it can be, given the limitations (display, no menus, space for instructions about hidden features on the back). I wouldn't want it to be any different.

For the record, I really have no dislikes about the 15C such as it is except that Swiss Micros is “screwing the pooch” all over again with the alphanumeric display of the DM-15 which, apart from the expanded memory option, is a firmware clone of it. But it has been 25 years—forever from a technological point of view—since HP discontinued the 11C, 15C and 16C and now most scientific calculators have at least one line of alphanumeric display—invariably dot matrix—and they use it/them, among other not necessarily programming purposes, to display algebraic expressions as they are typed into a compiler or written on paper. In fact, these calculators—especially those which may explicitly use variables for storing algebraic expressions—effectively blur the line between programmable and non-programmable calculators. Maybe I really should have assumed a full alphanumeric display in the OP, but what if somebody has really good reasons for designing a second edition of the series with a “strict” numeric display? Stranger—after a manner of speaking—things have happened. Anyway, the point of this thread is not that it is a space to air dislikes about the Voyager series—outside of that only the 12C still goes on surviving in spite of the 10C, 11C, 15C and 16C all being so long discontinued, of course—but rather one to air visions of a modern version of it/speculations about what might have been an HP-issued second edition of it. So, once again, here are the questions from the OP (assuming RPN programmables and keeping in account that the point of this thread is not airing dislikes about the Voyager series—you hardly have any anyway—but rather ideas of what might have been HP’s second edition of it if—as is most likely—they had updated the technology of its hardware):
1. Are they portrait or landscape orientation?
2. How bulky are they?
3. How alphanumeric are their displays? If any has a “strict” numeric display, why does it have one?
4. Does the 10C, 12C or 16C have a separate second edition? If the 12C or 16C do(es) not, do any of its/their features make it into the series?
5. How large is the memory of each calculator?