Currently I'm working in a big office with several engineers around me. Just for fun I put a different HP-calculators on my desktop nearly every day. It's interesting (frustrating), how people react on them:
HP-32E: No reaction at all
HP-41C: No reaction at all
HP-28S: No reaction...
HP-48GX: No reaction...
various combinations of the above: still nothing...
HP-32E AND HP-48GX: "For what do you need two calculators?" - "I collect them. This one is 20 years old" - "Uh hmm, ok"
HP-100LX: "Are you a technic freak? Making notes in such a funny thing? What do you do if the batteries are out?"
HP-49G: 3 (Three!) people notice it. "BOOAH! COOL! What monster calculator is that? can it fly? Is it a remote control?... "
a Palm IIIe: "Oh cool, you've got a PALM!!"
So maybe HP's newer marketing decisions about design aren't that bad. Somehow frustrating...
What are your experiences?
Holger
PS: Tomorrow I'll try an 11C...