23 years and counting: H-P's calculator, a relic by today's standards, is still selling strong

Austin American Statesman ^ | January 19, 2004 | Bob Keefe

[kennedy]

In an industry where a year or two can be an eternity in a product's life span, one unsung product has stood the test of time.

While other companies were unveiling their latest futuristic gadgets at the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Hewlett-Packard Co. was showing off a relic: the little HP 12c calculator, which the company says is the oldest consumer electronic device still in production. It's still going strong.

H-P first started selling the financial calculator in 1981, the same year IBM Corp. introduced the personal computer. Today, with very few changes, the 12c is still H-P's best-selling calculator. With its mortgage-amortization and bond-calculation functions, it is as essential to many real estate salespeople as a smile and firm handshake.

When introduced, the calculator sold for about $150 -- more than $350 when adjusted for inflation. Today, it retails for about $70.

Dennis Harms was the project manager in H-P's research and development department who was responsible for rolling out the HP 12c.

One reason the device is still popular, he said, is that H-P got national testing boards to approve it and convinced schools and real estate groups to endorse it.

But the biggest reason the calculator has been so successful, Harms said, is its simplicity and reliability.

"You could put it in your shirt pocket, the batteries lasted forever, and it's all you ever needed," said Harms, who still works for H-P, now in its printer division. He said he still has a prototype version of the calculator and uses it frequently.

Fred Valdez, manager of H-P's calculator division, said the company regularly gets letters from customers with their HP 12c war stories.

A zookeeper wrote to tell the company how his calculator was eaten by a hippo but still worked -- after a little cleaning -- when it came out the animal's other end a few days later, Valdez said. Another customer wrote to say her 12c outlasted several marriages.

With testimonials such as these, there's no reason to quit producing the device, even in this age of all-in-one gadgets that can do everything the 12c does and more, Valdez said.

"We intend to keep it in the family," he said.

[bobsatwork]

Bought an HP 15C in the early 80's. Replace the batteries every three or four years - still works great. My FIRST HP was an HP15 circa 1972. It made me a celebrity in college.

[husky ed]

I have both the 48G and 48GX.

My GX has my surveying and engineering cards in it. Which my younger brother is using right now.
So I'm left with my 48G. I never leave home without it.

As for being slow. It's faster than the car salesman and realator's with their computers. <:8^)

[Cboldt]

Wish I could find a good Windows/Linux version of a HP calculator

There are quite a few out there, last I looked. Under linux, for example, just do "xcalc -rpn"

[boris]

I have an original HP-35...so "original" that it lacks a "35" on the front. No batteries. If I'd kept the batts, manual, and box it would be worth a lot. Still works.

[Cyman]

My first calculator was a Bowmar Brain, used in the early to mid seventies. But I always carried my trusty slide rule " just in case"

[toast]

My college roomates had the HP. I never could get used to the reversed notation.

I have one of those solar Casio's. Bought it in '85. Still sitting right here on my desk.

[Professional Engineer]

I still use my HP48SX (14 years old) and 32C (10years old) daily. Workhorses.

[Xenalyte]

I still have my fully functional 12c from my first job, in my drawer here . . . what an age we live in!

[Always Right]

I assume that, by imaginary numbers, you are referring to the square roots of negative numbers, and not financial projections made by democrats. :)

LOL, its a very similar concept. Calling an increase in spending a cut is quite similar to taking a sqaure root of a negative number. Neither makes sense in the real world, but we do it anyways.

[js1138]

A little credit to IMSAI, Altair, Apple and even Radio Shack, please.

I learned programming, and even did hardware mods to the Trash-80. However, PCs got no respect until IBM made one. I worked for a while (1983) for a wannabe CompUSA that went out of business because it couldn't get an IBM franchise. We sold HPs, TIs, Compaqs and anything else we could get our hands on, but business customers wouldn't buy anything but IBM.

[Cboldt]

My first calculator was a Bowmar Brain ...

Made in Fort Wayne, Indiana, IIRC.

SLide rule necessary for engineering anyway, what with exponents, roots and the like. Bowmar Brain was strictly a 4-function thing.

[BigBobber]

Today, it retails for about $70.

This thing, like all HP calculators, is horribly overpriced. It should not be selling for more than $20. Any business major who buys one in this day and age should "do the math" and figure out they're being taken, big time.

[Henrietta]

There was another thread with this story a week or two ago. One can still buy an Altec-Lansing Voice of the Theater Monitor that has been around since the 70s (since the 50s in closely related models.)

[Dead Dog]

Still have an HP48G, 9 years old.

I'd read that HP outsoucred their calculator design to Taiwan, which failed, and that they no longer have the capacity to design new machines.

[Doohickey]

I have a TI-35 puchased when I was in Navy tech school in 1984. Still the most reliable, feature-rich, easy to use non-programmable calculator I've ever owned.

[Nick Danger]

What kind of new-fangled gadget is that? I got one of them thar HP financial calculators, but it looks like this:

[Jack Black]

10C, 11C, 15C, 12C, 16C

Can't remember what all the different models were.

One was for computer math, as I recall, and did binary, hex and octal conversion.

One was financial and did weird financial stuff I never understood, not having taken accounting.

Anybody out there who can tell what these did?

[tallhappy]

RPN ruined me; I can't use a regular calculator.

Happened to me too. RPN actually is or became more intuitive as well.

Alas, I don't even use a calculator now.

Plug it in to excel or what have you...

But my 11c still sits in a box and works just fine. It will work for ever. This is silly to say but I love that calculator.

[meadsjn]

his calculator was eaten by a hippo but still worked -- after a little cleaning -- when it came out the animal's other end a few days later

Don't try this with a Timex.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

RPN explained