[Windflier]

Remember that the CD was first released when plain handheld calculators were only for the very rich.

Mmm....don't think so. The first CDs appeared in stores around 1988 or '89. Hand held calculators had already been around for twenty years or more by that time, and were far reduced in cost from what they were originally. They were even cheap, as a matter of fact.

[cynwoody]

The first electronic hand-held was probably the Bowmar Brain, from 1971. It cost $240 and had four functions and an eight-digit LED display (bad for battery life). Shortly afterward, HP rolled out their HP-35 ($395), which could do scientific functions and replace slide rules.

Nowadays, adjusted for inflation, the Bowmar's price would buy four gigabytes, lots of functions, more computing power than existed in the world, and (soon) a retina display.