Date of intro: aug-1972,
Classification: / Documentation / Article,
Publisher-1: WIRELESS WORLD, Publisher-2: BARNARD H.W.,
Info: The article discusses the development and future of electronic calculators in the early 1970s.
Calculators were becoming widely available in shops and through mail-order companies, but they were still too expensive for most households.
Manufacturers had expected very high demand and therefore produced too many calculators.
The article argues that a much larger consumer market could develop if prices fell significantly.
Early electronic calculators contained many separate electronic components, making them expensive and labour-intensive to manufacture.
Japan initially dominated the calculator industry because of its relatively low labour costs. However, the introduction of integrated circuits (ICs) allowed almost all of a calculator's electronics to be placed on a single chip.
This reduced the importance of labour costs and allowed manufacturers from other countries to compete with Japanese companies.
The article predicts that future pocket calculators will become smaller, cheaper, and more energy-efficient.
It suggests using MOS technology, which requires little power, combined with a liquid-crystal display.
Instead of a normal keyboard, an extremely small calculator might even use a metal stylus to enter information by touching specific areas.
Such a design would also be inexpensive to manufacture.
Finally, WIRELESS WORLD introduces its own desk calculator design.
It uses an MOS chip for arithmetic, control, and storage and has an eight-digit display.
It can perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring, and several other functions.
A kit containing the components, circuit board, and case was announced for £39.25
In short: the article shows how integrated circuits were transforming calculators from expensive, complicated machines into smaller, cheaper, and more accessible consumer devices.