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by nickbp 5541 days ago
I love my TI-89, which I got ~7 years ago for college physics/astro classes, and still use fairly often when the need arises, typically once or twice a month. I find the interface of a physical calculator to be far superior to a more general purpose machine when facing the tasks its built for.

However, I also think they're way overpriced for what they are. I think a lot of the price is just 'because we can'.
1 comments
AdamTReineke 5541 days ago
Are there patents that prevent competition? Why do TI's overpriced calculators have to be the standard?
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wtallis 5541 days ago
They've set up a great lock-in system. They've bought off all the schools and teachers to get them to require students to use a specific TI model, and then they get the schools to buy textbooks that are written to use the TI calculators, with examples that give keystroke-by-keystroke instructions, and sample programs written in that model's dialect of BASIC. Sometimes they even get the standardized tests to require a specific calculator.

It's a great deal for lazy teachers: not only do they not have to teach their students how to perform the calculation, they don't even have to teach the student how to use their calculator to do it. If a student wants to use a different model, they're on their own. They'll have to learn the TI BASIC anyways, because the textbook doesn't even try to do a decent job of describing an algorithm in any other notation.

In most cases, breaking TI's monopoly would be as difficult as, and possibly require, busting a teachers' union.

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sliverstorm 5541 days ago
I've heard the other reason is their math libraries. I don't know a whole lot about the calculator industry, but I've been told the number of companies with good embedded math libraries is very small, and the cost of developing one is prohibitive.

This adds big barriers to entry. You can't write your own libraries, and you can't use more powerful hardware to compensate either- TI's calculators cost them very little (the popular TI-83 uses a CPU designed in 1976), and will shove you right out of the market with their huge profit margin.

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city41 5541 days ago
It doesn't feel like a very lucrative space to compete in these days.
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