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From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP-42S upgrade??
Message-ID: <1991Apr11.001012.5142@qualcomm.com>
Date: 11 Apr 91 00:10:12 GMT
References: <1991Apr1.205911.1@watt.ccs.tuns.ca> <48070003@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com> <1991Apr8.173125.4758@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu>
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In article <1991Apr8.173125.4758@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu> lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu (a.k.a. Chri) writes:
>ken@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com (Kenneth M. Sumrall) writes:
>
>>>I am looking to purchase an HP-42S calculator soon.  Does anyone know
>>>if HP has plans to release an upgraded 42S in the near future (re:
>>>release of HP-32SII makes HP-32S obsolete).  If they do, I would make
>>                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>my purchase after the upgraded calculator is released.
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>
>>It is for this precise reason that computer and/or calculator companies
>>don't announce products before they are ready for sale.  
>
>I can't resist ;-)  SOME companies may not announce products before
>they are ready for sale, but many do.  One need look no further than
>Microsoft to see this (say, when *WILL* "Pen Windows" be ready for
>sale?).  The PC software industry (as well as other sections) is just
>full of this announce-before-it-is-ready stuff.  Go Corp's Pen O/S,
>Apple's System 7, WordPerfect for Windows, umpteen versions of OS/2;
>the list goes on and on.

It's a different situation... it's extremely easy to upgrade to the new
version of a program, and it's extremely difficult to upgrade to a new
HP.   Microsoft advances way before they have anything close to a product
as a form of pre-emptive strike.  (The joke is that if someone announced a
new thought-controlled system that Microsoft would announce that they had been
working on that for five years, that it would be part of the next release of
Windows / DOS, and that they'd have it within the year.  Then they'd hire
programmers and maybe release it in under five years.)

Who is HP competing against, on the other hand?  Itself.  Those who want the
new version are usually those who own or will buy the current version.