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Technology Stocks : DELL Bear Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JRI who wrote (2410)	1/22/1999 10:40:00 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2578

Hi john rosser; Regarding the history of pocket calculator manufacturing and the process of vertical integration. There is no reason to suppose that the vertically integrated companies selling PCs have shown up yet, as they did not exactly dominate the early calculator years, either. Here's some interesting history from the web: The History of Pocket Electronic Calculators 1965 -- Texas Instruments (USA) begins work on a hand-held calculator, code named "Cal-Tech." It was to be developed as a prototype to show the potential of TI's recently-developed integrated circuits (which were not selling as well as they had hoped). The "Cal-Tech" featured four function calculations (+, -, x, /) and used a thermal paper tape printout. 1967 -- North American Rockwell (USA) begins work on MOS ICs for Japan's Sharp Electronics (then named Hayakawa Electric). Sharp's plan was to reduce the electronic requirements of their desk-top calculator to 4 or 5 ICs: possibly leading to smaller and portable electronic calculators. Texas Instrument's "Cal-Tech" prototype calculator was completed in March 1967. TI would use this as a demonstration tool for their IC design and production capability. 1968 -- Hewlett-Packard releases the fully-electronic model 9100 desk-top calculator, priced at $4,900. The 9100 used a CRT (cathode ray tube) display and was about the size of a large typewriter. Bill Hewlett congratulates the development team but allegedly commented that the world needs a similar machine that would fit in a shirt pocket. Amazingly, the HP engineers would accomplish this new challenge within four years (the HP-35 in 1972)! 1969 -- The first Large Scale Integration (LSI) calculator, Sharp's QT-8, began production using IC chips made by Rockwell. The USA debut of this AC-powered, four function calculator, was at an engineering trade show in New York City in March 1970. It sold for $495 at the time. Work continues between Sharp and Rockwell to reduce the size of the calculator towards a smaller, portable unit. A later version of the QT-8 (the QT-8B from 1970) included a rechargeable battery pack in order to make it portable. 1969 -- Impressed with the "Cal-Tech" prototype and Texas Instruments' IC production capability, Canon (Japan) begins work with TI on the electronics for a small, hand-holdable calculator which would be called the "Pocketronic." 1971 -- In the Fall, Bowmar (USA) begins shipping their first "cigarette pack" sized calculator, the 901B. Priced initially at $240, it was the lowest priced unit on the market and was also one of the smallest. It featured the standard four math functions, an 8 digit red LED display, and rechargeable batteries. The integrated circuit (IC) and Klixon keypad were both made by TI, which was then solely a parts supplier -- not a rival calculator manufacturer. geocities.com So you see, actually the history of the calculator revolution matches the computer revolution precisely, so far, in that vertically integrated suppliers did not dominate the early industry, but eventually ended up with all the business. My expectation is that this trend will begin to show up in the PC business when the real price wars begin (by 2 years from now for personal machines). I don't see anything in the history of caculator manufacturing to contradict this. On the other hand, there are a few PC makers with hints of vertical integration... Think of IBM and HWP, maybe MUEI, maybe even CPQ, but certainly not DELL. -- Carl