“Management told us, ‘Don’t screw this up,'” Harms said. At that time, calculators were a big part of HP’s business, which consisted mostly of selling test and measurement equipment. So Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the founders of HP, told the engineers to ship it only when it was perfect because the company’s reputation was riding on the 12c. The keypads stuck and HP never shipped it.
Harms (pictured) said that the previous calculator model suffered from quality problems. “It’s too bad we can’t calculate how many deals were decided, trades transacted and loans granted with the assistance of the 12c,” said Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer at the personal systems group at HP.
Hewlett packard 12c financial calculator professional#
The calculator is one of only two calculators permitted for use during financial professional certification exams. It has replaceable batteries and fits in a shirt pocket. The HP 12c has a landscape layout, computations that are more accurate than federal standards publications, and a keypad that lets users enter complex formulas. It came out the same year of the launch of the space shuttle Columbia and the same year as the IBM personal computer. HP calls this machine the “gold standard of business calculation,” and the Museum of HP Calculators calls it the “calculator that wouldn’t die.” Though it has been followed by many other models since its introduction in 1981 for $150, the device is HP’s best-selling and longest-selling calculator. That’s pretty rare for tech gadgets, which normally always benefit when they move from last year’s model to next year’s model. So it came with a complete feature set and it didn’t need to be replaced every year with models that were on the “faster, better, cheaper” track. You didn’t have to wait for it to boot up. And it could calculate those functions instantly. It came out at a time when it could address most of the functions that financial experts needed, like calculating interest rates for real estate agents. We thought it would have a two-year life.”Īs a result of the longevity, multiple generations of people have grown up with fond memories of the 12c. “It lasted this long because of the quality of it,” said Dennis Harms, the original project manager on the 12c, now working in HP’s printer division, in an interview. It shows that high-quality products can keep selling for a very long time, even if it seems like time has passed them by. While the company hasn’t won praise for its business strategy lately, the HP 12c calculator has been one of its best-selling products ever, and it has been in continuous production for the last three decades.
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