The 5 ages of HP calculators...

[Ken]

A bit simplistic but it's the way I feel about HP at the moment. I'm sure you all can think of some other words to describe HP over the years:

1 Foundation (late 60's)

2 Innovation (early to mid 70's)

3 Perfection (late 70's - mid 80's)

4 Stagnation (early 90's - late 90's)

5 Immitation (late 90's - now)

Ken :~)

[rudi]

think there is another point:

6 quality:

recent i bought a hp 49g and was very disappointed.
keyboard and display are not state of the art and not hp-like.
in the past hp-calculators were shipped with phantastic manuals, the 49g, a very complex device, comes with a small booklett!

hp! were do you want to go today?

[Ron Ross]

I believe their aim is for a lower point between two curved goal posts or oval target that we all occasionally have to park our backsides on. Correct me if I am wrong.

[Frank Knight]

Another word ending in *ation* actually comes to mind for the current period, but I hope the sequence of calculator events does not end with starvation and deprivation!

[Mike]

The 48SX and GX are great calculators. I suspect they will
become known in the future as the last quality calculators
that HP made, along with the HP 41C/CV/CX, 42S, 29C, 25, 25C, 67/97,
and the great 65.

Notice how I left out the 34C, 38C, etc. The quality on those
were just not up to par. Similar to the american cars of the
early 80s.

[Ken]

It's a sad, sad fact that the 49G is nothing compared to my 10 year old beautiful 48SX, which has a display with a few missing lines. On being told by HP Melbourne this couldn't be fixed, I was "conned" into a 49G, my 5th and possibly last HP:<(

[Tom (UK)]

Why don't you ask for your money back or for them to swap it for an HP48GX? The more people tell HP about how they feel about the current HP calculator line up (both for and against) the better.

Tom.

[Bill Duncan]

I agree with your lineup, and leaving out the 30 series.
But you also left out the hp-11c, hp-15c and hp-16c which I
think were very innovative and quality machines. The battery
life is exceptional, and features, especially in the 15c and
16c were great for the time.

Cheers.