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Cyhist Feb 11, 1997 J
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Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 16:57:34 -0800
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: John Ahlstrom <jahlstro@cisco.com>
Subject: Re: HP Calculator Prices (was Re: digital watches)
X-To: Hart@Prairienet.org
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Michael Hart Wrote:
>as per
>
>HP-35 was first scientific (at $395 - 1971 ?)
>
>Yes, it was about then, but they had to RAISE the price in order to get it to sell. . .at $125 or whatever it was first, they had it as an expensive toy. . .to get it to sell, they had to take a different tack. . .show the supervisors how much time it took an extremely capable person to do the same work with CRC math books and sliderules or other calculators. . .then multiply those hour totals per week/month/year by the amount paid per hour.
>
>Then. . .and only then. . .was it considered a bargain. . . .
>
>A real bargain. . .would pay for itself in a month.
>
>But at $125, you couldn't get their attention.
>
>Michael S. Hart
>--snip snip
I remember it differently, but, perhaps, I never saw the first ones out. Very early (still snow on the groud in Boston) in 1971 or two a colleague bought an HP-35 for $395 from the Harvard Coop. No one had ever seen one before at any price.
Maybe they didn't make the Coop in their low-price version.
John Ahlstrom
jahlstrom@cisco.com
Any neural system sufficiently complex to generate the axioms of arithmetic is too complex to be understood by itself.
Kaekel's Conjecture
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: John Ahlstrom <jahlstro@cisco.com>
Subject: Re: HP Calculator Prices (was Re: digital watches)
X-To: Hart@Prairienet.org
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Michael Hart Wrote:
>as per
>
>HP-35 was first scientific (at $395 - 1971 ?)
>
>Yes, it was about then, but they had to RAISE the price in order to get it to sell. . .at $125 or whatever it was first, they had it as an expensive toy. . .to get it to sell, they had to take a different tack. . .show the supervisors how much time it took an extremely capable person to do the same work with CRC math books and sliderules or other calculators. . .then multiply those hour totals per week/month/year by the amount paid per hour.
>
>Then. . .and only then. . .was it considered a bargain. . . .
>
>A real bargain. . .would pay for itself in a month.
>
>But at $125, you couldn't get their attention.
>
>Michael S. Hart
>--snip snip
I remember it differently, but, perhaps, I never saw the first ones out. Very early (still snow on the groud in Boston) in 1971 or two a colleague bought an HP-35 for $395 from the Harvard Coop. No one had ever seen one before at any price.
Maybe they didn't make the Coop in their low-price version.
John Ahlstrom
jahlstrom@cisco.com
Any neural system sufficiently complex to generate the axioms of arithmetic is too complex to be understood by itself.
Kaekel's Conjecture
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