Article DirectoryJust another article directory

HP was almost the first corporations to create graphing calculators. In 1987, Hewlett Packard distributed the HP 28c to celebrated acclaim. It wasn’t long before HP had a huge following among the new culture of mathematicians and students that were graphing calculator aficionados. But like other calculator manufacturers, HP struggled to maintain their market share in the onslaught of Texas Instruments goods that overpowered in the 1990′s and the years that followed. Why did HP have trouble holding on, and where do they stand today?

When HP released the HP 28C in 1987, the calcualtor market was new. Casio had just created the first graphing calculator about a year earlier. Sharp and Texas Instruments were about to arrive on the scene. But still, at the time, anyone could get in the game, and it was only a guess who would win.

Hewlett Packard’s claim to fame was a method of inputting known as Reverse Polish notation or RPN. Although most graphing calculators input in the regular algebraic method such as 8 + 3, Reverse Polish Notation would input the same calculation 3 8 +. This is indeed quite a bit more efficient if you have an abundance of calculations to enter at once because it allows you to get around the requirement of parentheses. On the other hand, it can be fairly counter-intuitive when you’ve spent a couple of decades learning to do arithmetic without Reverse Polish Notation. So although RPN gained a factional following among certain segments of the calculator community, it was not something that endeared HP to the school community as a whole.

As the 90′s drew closer, Texas Instruments was worried less about RPN and more about getting students and teachers to buy their graphing calculators. In quick succession, the TI-80, TI-81, TI-82 and TI-85 were released with great success and quickly made strides in schools for two reasons. First, they were simple to use. Second, Texas Instruments courted students by releasing supplemental materials, training teachers, and making scientific probes to interface with their handheld calculators. The plan of attack succeeded, and to this day, Texas Instruments owns the educational market on graphing calculators.

In the meantime, HP continued to attract programmers, engineers, and the geek crowd. Their calculators were powerful because of display, features, and programmability. In the middle 1990′s it was not difficult to download programs as complicated as Mortal Kombat for certain HP models. But as important a group as the techies are, that market is small compared to the millions of high school classrooms around America that TI owned.

So at the turn of the century, HP began a move towards becoming more user friendly for all users. Now, RPN could be turned off, not a requirement to use Hewlett Packard calculators, opening the market to more students and teachers than in the past. Graphing menus became easier to use, and costs became more spread out. Presently, HP offers a lineup of calculators that is more suitable for the educational market than in their early days. Cheaper models, HP 39GS and HP 40GS retail at just under $50. The 40GS is the only graphing calculator with a computer algebra system that is at that price point. The HP 50G competes well with Texas Instruments TI-89 as their best top CAS calculator, and in the middle, you’ll find the HP 48GS.

To learn more, visit Tech Powered Math, where you can learn about the HP 40GS.