The Can(n)on that fizzled

[Matt Agajanian]

Hello all.

As I've noticed (even from my own posts), one manufacturer barely gets mentioned, Canon.

What happened to their calculators/calculator division? Were they competed out by HP, TI, Casio, Sharp or did they just decide to focus as an optics-based company with their copiers & cameras?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Good morning,

(03-02-2014 09:09 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  What happened to their calculators/calculator division?

If you look at their website, you will find around three dozen calculators! At least one of them, the stylish scientific "X MARK I PRO" has been discussed on this forum some time ago, if memory doesn't fail me.

Regards
Max

[HP67]

Neat! I'm looking over this now. They sure look a lot like Casios.

[Mike Powell]

A rather amusing (but still commendable) quote from their website:

Quote:Over 55% of our calculator range is partially made from recycled Canon product materials.

I wonder if they get someone like Kinpo to make the calcs for them?

[HP67]

(03-03-2014 10:37 AM)Mike Powell Wrote:  A rather amusing (but still commendable) quote from their website:

Quote:Over 55% of our calculator range is partially made from recycled Canon product materials.

I wonder if they get someone like Kinpo to make the calcs for them?

Yes, from recycled TI calcs

[Matt Agajanian]

(03-03-2014 08:22 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Good morning,

(03-02-2014 09:09 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  What happened to their calculators/calculator division?

If you look at their website, you will find around three dozen calculators! At least one of them, the stylish scientific "X MARK I PRO" has been discussed on this forum some time ago, if memory doesn't fail me.
pp
Regards
Max

Thanks for the NEWS FEED. With the visits I've made to OfficeMax and Staples, Canon scientifics were nowhere to be found. So, I thought Canon was out of the game.

Okay then, next questions:

How do they stack up (pun intended) to Casio and TI models?

Which are the top of the line scientific and graphing calculators?

[Duane Hess]

Hi Matt:

I took your question with somewhat of a different "age". Maybe because the 1st calculator I bought was a Canon back in '74(?) when I was in Jr. High. I was in a small/moderate sized town in "ruralish" area of Nebraska. We had 3 office stores and I only recall Canon, Sharp and Olympia being sold. Any other brand was mail order. Once TI started their education push many school math teachers accumulated orders from students directly, else even TI would be a "back of the magazine" purchase.

As we all know the calculator business back then was a very cut-throat affair due to widely varing manufacturing, development, research and sales costs depending on the specific vendor. Along with the non-ending technical evolution affecting all those issues.

In the opinion of a primarily technology isolated early teenager who occasionally talked to the sales people in those 3 office equipment stores and from things I've read in the last 40 years (very infrequently), I'd summarize Canon's involvement in calculators as follows:

Back in the day Canon had calculators with widely varing abilities; most of which were "costly". Even though they had scientific units they sold them with a "old business" mentality. I suspect Canon realized calculators were a dog-eat-dog technology, so tried a "niche" approach. The niche was to try a sell to their tried-and-true long term business customer base. Shortly into the mid/latter 70's they realized the technology was too blood thirsty. Meaning even loyal customer bases would look elsewhere for less expensive and more flexible products, hence pulled the plug. Afterwards Canon's involvement in calculators was mainly "commodity".

Like-wise with their foray into desktop microcomputers.

This is strictly the personal opinion of a naive 14 year old who never even heard of Texas Instruments. That, in itself, should give you an idea of how technically isolated many were in mid-Nebraska. So take it as is.

[Ron Ross]

One of my nicest vintage scientific calculators is a Canon Palmtronic. It has a form factor similar to an Hp 50G. It is powered by 4 AA cells and has a nice quality feel, certainly head and shoulders above Ti. In some ways it may be the best calculator of the mid seventies as far as build quality. The LEDs are not bright, but readable and the batteries would last for a long time. It had no charger and the batteries are off the shelf AAs.

Nice function set. As I said, it is one of my prized possessions.