Survey posted 2009-08-26 17:32 by Astrid.

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Survey idea thanks to Travis.

They think they're still in the business, but they're shooting themselves in the foot with the Nspire series.

You'll see nothing but "Nspire" from them from here on out, and that will doom them.

I agree. I would of had a nspire cas already, just for the games actually :P

I don't even use a calculator anymore... can you believe that... my classes are in the realm of vhdl and computer architecture now... and then their's the senior project.

Nonetheless i still carry my trusty ti89 with me everyday ... along with my badass leatherman Surge :)

Voted that they would not be doing any new calculator soon; the current ones from them seem to satisfy customer needs/wants.

I agree that they will stay in the business, but not come out with anything new soon. They are going to hype-up the N-spires as long as they can and make them seem like the best thing since sliced bread or toilet paper. Eventually, people will get dissatisfied and will demand something new.

My Uncle remembers when they wanted to make computers, technically they do, Nspire is so powerful its like a computer! I still think they will be making calcs for a little more, BUT were're in the computer age, soon there'll be a laptops dominating school! These graphing calculates are cool, but computers might take over one day! When every googles one has cellphones that can use Hight Tech 3D GPS, (I'm referring to Google's new Droid), no one will need these, sure they'll be some for elemntry schoolers, but still, T will be making these for long to come, probably with they're Nspires.
Sorry for long post :)

Earlier I posted, "When every googles one has cellphones...", I meant when everyone has cellphones,( don't know why I put Google's).

I hope they will make the next one with color!

the same as I think :P
I'd be great if they would mage a red/blue/green screen
maybe R B and Yellow would be better, then there might be an option to let 2 or 3 colors flicker so you get new colors? bit like GS now but more, you know, colorish :p

AAANYYWAAYS
I voted yes, but they wont make any new calcs soon
thats's what I think at least

See the URL for flickering color on a TI-86. :) But not really that great, since it flashes noticeably, is rather dark, only does complete pixel columns, & only works on TI-86es with ROM 1.4. (The others have a different screen or something.) It also might be bad for the screen, but I never ran it long enough to find out.

I have a ROM 1.4 TI-86. Do you remember what code you used to do that?

Check the link for the .86P file.

If anyone else wants to try, remember that it might damage your calculator's screen due to stressing the LCD (which is how it works - sort of like what happens when you poke it (except the TI-86 screen is covered so it cannot be poked)).

Hmm, it doesn't seem to work on mine even though it is 1.4. I get flashing and shades of gray, but nothing quite resembling the colors in the photo you posted. Maybe they had different LCDs in some models even within the same ROM version? The date code on mine is 08/97.

Could be. I have never seen another 1.4 TI-86, only 1.6es, & I know they did not work. My TI-92+ worked a little, but the code was awful because it did not use interrupts (& thus is very sensitive to battery level).

I do know my ROM 1.8K TI-81 does not do color :), but that is to be expected, since it has blue pixels instead of black.

Speaking of the 1.8K TI-81 LCD, that's something I had been thinking of asking you about, especially since I read a web page a couple of days ago describing how the TI-81 self-tests differed on different ROM versions. I take it your 1.8K TI-81's bluish LCD is the higher-contrast type like the TI-82 and TI-85, and has 32 contrast levels instead of 10? This seemed to be the case judging by the photos on DataMath, though I couldn't tell for sure because all of the LCD photos there look more or less bluish.

If so, that's rather startling to me because I always thought of that low-contrast black display as being kind of an intrinsic characteristic of the 81. :-) Seeing a TI-81 with a blue LCD in person in the past would have really shocked me. I guess we can only wonder why they switched back to the black version when the blue displays were so much more readable.

Yeah, it has 32 contrast levels. It seems from what I have heard from those who have taken them apart & from writing various values to the ports that the 1.x TI-81s have the same processor & screen driver as the TI-85/86, with just the RAM, the ROM, the screen itself, & the (lack of a) link port being different. (Well, the clock runs slower too.)

The non-pixel region of the LCD is a light desaturated yellow, & at a reasonable contrast level the off pixels are a light greenish color & the on pixels are dark blue.

Thats what I've always been wanting as well!

I chosen option #2. Recently they released the TI-76.Fr, which is a France-only model and is just a stripped down version of the old TI-83 (which was re-released and rebranded as TI-82 STATS in France)

Does the N-spire series have a backlit display? One thing that always frustrated me with the 83+, 84+ and 89 series was that they had no backlight, so I could not use them in the dark. The next model should have a backlight, and it would be nice if it had a color display, too. Anyway, I voted "Yes, TI will be in the calculator business for a very long time."

No, the Nspire doesn't have a backlight. The LCD looks even worse than the current models, especially in the 84+SE emulator. The blur is unbearable.

Of course TI will stay in the calculator business. They were making calculators long before they had graphing capabilities.

I voted #4 because yes they have been in the calculator industry for a long time, but before that they were in military and other microprocessors. I think perhaps they will stay in calculators as long as their is a demand for them. Once the money dries up, perhaps they'll move onto other profitable semiconductor ventures? Just my opinion. Hopefully I'm wrong. :)

TI's only purpose is to make money so consider the following. The software for TI calculators is over a dozen years old and hasn't been upgraded significantly in all that time. By focusing on the high school math market they don't have to update their aging software. It's a business technique called "putting lipstick on a pig." A few high school teachers like the new nspire products because they are a new toy to play with, but the rest of the world is waiting and watching to see if TI will turn this product into something significant, with upgrades. As a result, the nspire series is not a significant success and may be discontinued in a couple of years and in the long run, competition will force TI out of the calculator market. A decade ago, TI came out with some really "WOW!" calculator products but that is not the TI of today, which has just produced a dud.

Actually, that's exactly what's going on. I don't know if anyone mentioned this before, but what TI is doing (basically) is making almost the same product as before, and putting a new name on it. They haven't made much progress, but they're still releasing new calculators. That's because each calculator isn't that different from the next. Instead of focusing on getting more memory into calculators, TI should focus on upgrading the software.

Yes, the calculator division has been around a long time, my first calculator was a new TI59 with mag card reader! But look at their product development. In my opinion, the last and best number cruncher they made was the TI95. Since then, they haven't offered the paying customer what they wanted, instead, relying on education rules to force sales. TI <were> really innovative, but these days, they are only 'putting lipstick on the pig' - ROFL! Even the nSpire CAS is only the same thing in a different package without any programmability - it's a backward step. TI are ignoring the market's desires. Like HP calcs, they have lost their momentum. I predict that some creative company will invent a range of interesting new calculators and use price to lever their way into the market. And if they offer some real progress and satisfy their customers? TI made their choice when they stopped innovating - when you think you own the market, you've just lost it.