HP not only missed the boat with the docs for the 50g, they didn't even come close to the harbor!
And this is a way to get someone to drop $150 on a calculator? By the way, I was in one of the major retail stores the other day (two words, both begin with "b") and the 50g blister pack was down to $139 from $149. That helps, but so would spending more than three cents net on the documentation. HP used to know this. The problem is they've been taken over by a mess of these modern bean counters with short attention spans. And they wonder out loud why their market share is shrinking. Oy vey, how I miss both Mr H and Mr. P.. They were not always right, but every time the shuttle flies these days, I wish I had my "old" 48gx" back again.
Roci
--- On Sun, 7/27/08, martin cohen <mjcohen@...> wrote:From: martin cohen <mjcohen@...>
Subject: [50g] Re: Digest Number 178 - quality of documentation
To: 50g@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, July 27, 2008, 4:01 PMRe: Yes I can remember the HP35 and HP45.... good build quality. I don't
really want to get into the pros and cons of manufacturing locations,
however as suggested its all about maximizing bottom line profit.
Take for example the totally inadequate manual and documentation that
comes with the HP50g.. and compare it if you remember to the quality
of the manuals that accompanied both the HP35 and Hp45..
Another example of how to maximize profit...
Walsh
------------ --------- --------- --------- -----
Of course the 50g is orders of magnitude more complex (over 2,000 functions!) than the 35 and 45, which has all their functions right on the keyboard.
I printed out the 50g documentation (about 800 pages, iirc). It would be totally unreasonable to expect this to be included in physical form with the calculator. It would be nice, however, to have it on the calculator itself.