What do you like most about the HP-15C?

[Gerardo Rincon]

Size (truly pocket size Scientific calculator), No Menus, RPN

Edited: 4 Sept 2011, 10:25 p.m.

[Lincoln R.]

The fact that HP actually did it. People have been wanting a 15C reissue for so long, and they finally made one. I obviously haven't gotten one yet, and never owned an original production 15C to compare it to (although if the reissue has the desired effect on TAS prices I may buy one), so I won't be able to speak as to whether it's better or worse than the original.

[hpnut]

I don't understand the rationale of HP making limited production run of the HP 15C.

I don't think the 10,000 unit production run will satisfy the pent up demand of 84,000+ projected by the hp15c.org if their stats can be believed. there's too much room for speculators to cash in at e**y.

[Lincoln R.]

I don't know how accurate that petition is. There were 15,192 people saying they would buy 84,148 calculators. That's approximately 5.5 calculators per signatory. And if the limited production run flies off shelves that quickly, it would be trivial for HP to make more since it's based on the 12C hardware.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

Maybe the LE signature gets dropped and the packaging approaches that of a standard 12C with future production runs. So the LE will stay a collectors' item primarily.

[Katie Wasserman]

Where did this limited edition count of 10,000 come from? I don't recall reading anything from HP about how many will be created. The picture that Tim posted of the 12C LE shows a 5-digit serial number leading one to suspect that 100,000 will be made of that. Perhaps a similar number of 15C LE calculators will be made.

Edited: 5 Sept 2011, 2:22 a.m.

[uhmgawa]

Quote:

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Where did this limited edition count of 10,000 come from?

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The marketing department, where else?

Quote:

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I don't recall reading anything from HP about how many will be created. The picture that Tim posted of the 12C LE shows a 5-digit serial number leading one to suspect that 100,000 will be made of that. Perhaps a similar number of 15C LE calculators will be made.

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As I'd speculated earlier I can't see any way 10K units will
cover development NRE alone.

It seems logical to assume if the 10K volume limit for the
limited edition flavor is held, a non-designer version will
follow (perhaps at a price adjustment) in order to attempt
meeting revenue requirement for the product.

[Egan Ford]

They can always switch to letters.

[Thomas Radtke]

Chineese letters, for example :^).

[Glenn Dowdy]

Quote:

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Where did this limited edition count of 10,000 come from? I don't recall reading anything from HP about how many will be created. The picture that Tim posted of the 12C LE shows a 5-digit serial number leading one to suspect that 100,000 will be made of that. Perhaps a similar number of 15C LE calculators will be made.

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Note that it takes a 5-digit serial number to count 10k units, also.

[Katie Wasserman]

Quote:

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Note that it takes a 5-digit serial number to count 10k units, also.

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Not if you start with unit number 0.

[Gene Wright]

Or use base 16

[Glenn Dowdy]

Quote:

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Or use base 16

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How likely are either one of these scenarios in a manufacturing environment? ;)

[Howard Owen]

Base 16 would imply up to 1,048,575 units, if you started with 1. :)

Edited: 5 Sept 2011, 10:55 p.m.

[Dwight Sturrock]

More likely binary, limiting it to 64 units.

[Howard Owen]

Which would be terrible news! But what about base 64?

64⁵- 1 = 1 073 741 823!

Now we are talking a significant fraction of the world population, and eBay 15C prices are in serious trouble! :)

[Katie Wasserman]

Yes ebay prices would head to zero, but could you imagine if 10% of the world had an HP-15C and knew how to use it? This would be one smart planet.

[Les Bell]

I think many (most) of the people here are "hackers" - in the traditional sense, of people who enjoy exploring programmable machinery to make it do the most that it can. That involves learning, exploring, researching - not just the device, but in this case, the mathematical principles on which it is bounded.

From that perspective, the 15C offers probably the most hack-power per cm³ of all the HP line. It's small enough to be slipped in a shirt pocket and used for daily back-of-an-envelope work, but it also has enough memory and a rich enough feature set to be used to solve very complex problems, if it's the only tool to hand.

Yes, the 41C and later are easier to program, with their alpha displays - but then, a computer is easier still. And probably not as satisfying, as a result.

So:

• Small size
  
• Rich feature set: matrices, complex, SOLVE, numerical integration, etc.
  
• Excellent documentation
  
• Attention paid to accuracy of algorithms
  
• Darn good looking!
  

Best

--- Les

[http://www.lesbell.com.au]

[Egan Ford]

The 15C was my first RPN calculator. And there was nothing I could not do with it, except plot graphs (I had an Apple II+ for that, and pen and paper of course).

I still have my original 15C, and it's still on my desk. (Regrettably) it's the only tech I kept from the '80s.

I guess what I am saying, is that you always have a thing for your first. My 15C got me through most of the '80s and early '90s. So what do I like the most? The memories. Cheesy, I know.

[Lyuka]

The memories, so am I.

[Howard Owen]

My first programmable device of any description was an HP41C. That machine will always remain at the top of my list of favorites. I admire the 15C as a sort of aesthetic and practical triumph, but It wouldn't be the first machine I'd reach for if I needed one.