I feel some hope for new kbds..?

[Eric Lundgren]

I think the 33s kbd might be saved. Does anyone know the cycle for releasing new machines? How late could they pull the brake and do a retool of such a component?

I've just got this feeling..factor in also that if I'm correct (if not correct me) the design for the 33s was presented before the new PE exam restrictions. Would this potential market be sufficient motivation for them to slap some 48/32s buttons on that thing?

eric

[Paul Brogger]

I was joking elsewhere with regard to the 33s' delayed release. They've slipped delivery of the 48GII and 49G+ a few times already, so it's not at all surprising that the 33s is being delayed too.

I don't think for a moment that, because of complaints on this board, they're going to do a 180 on their racy new design and start from scratch.

It does appear that, inasmuch as the new keys aren't rubber and mushy, they'll be better than we might have expected, and that's GREAT news indeed.

[Eric Lundgren]

Well, how about that! Are they really 'hard' keys?? Great!

Yeah, I was feeling a little optimistic this morning :)

[John Limpert]

I just don't understand this new school of industrial design that insists on doing weird things to keyboards. The HP-33S looks tame compared to some of the new cellular phone handsets. Whatever happened to "Form follows function"?

The old Bell System used to conduct usability studies on new designs for telephone equipment. I wonder if HP did any usability testing on the new calculator designs?

[Robin]

I'm quite shure they where doing some tests, but in many product lines, the sales/marketing has the last word - they first want to sell, and to many manager's mean that's already done with a "special" design, usability does not seem primary for them :-( .

But there is still hope - I haven't seen the final release yet, the say it will be available in the middle of November in Switzerland. We'll see.