Although this has nothing to do with Apple, the idea is the same. Around 1970, I went to an accountant for tax preparation. He was very proud of his AC-powered digital calculator that only did four arithmetic functions. It cost $400 in 1970 dollars, probably the cost of an iMac today. Many years later, battery-powered calculators that did the same plus memory functions cost $5. As I recall, I acquired a scientific calculator for $15 at that time!
My wife was taking a statistics course and the students were supposed to use a program on the University main frame to do their homework. I gave my wife a Hewlett-Packard calculator and the professor threatened to fail her for using it instead of the university computer. Then the prof got one and used it in class. My wife got her accustomed A in the course.
Speaking of Hewlett-Packard computers, the other day I stumbled on
PCalc in the App Store. I had forgotten just how much I liked RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) until I downloaded this calculator app. This has replaced four or five other calculator/conversion apps, offers an RPN option, and runs on all my devices from the watch to the M1 Mac.
