“They long ago outlived every phone, calculator and computer of their generation and these days, you’ll still see them prominently displayed on desks of financial planners.”
And…they’re unchanged in over 20 years!
According to Ronald D, White, business journalist for the LATimes, engineers, scientists and mathematicians use the calculators, but financial planners appear to be the most avid users.
Planners say the intricate RPN (“reverse polish notation”) system the devices use allows complex calculations to be accomplished more quickly and with fewer steps than any other device or app out there.
HP introduced RPN in the early 1960s and then in the 1980s, they released the best known version, the 12C.
Today, HP is still producing nine calculators that support RPN, but ironically, these are calculators that carry bragging rights that use a reverse logic…the older, the more worn, the more faded the keys, the higher the esteem in which they are held! *
*Los Angeles Times, “They just can’t function without their old HPs”, Ronald D, White, August 29, 2013