Re:Is the HP Way still relevant today?
by 3rdAccount on Sunday July 22, 2018 @12:32PM
(#17587555)
The HP calculator story pops up here occasionally. They bet huge on it and it paid off hugely. Every scientist and engineer threw away their slide-rule and bought one for a large chunk of change. The design is still iconic.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Marketing had initially estimated the HP-35 would sell 10,000 units. When 25,000 had been sold, the bug was discovered: 2.02 ln eˣ returned 2.
Packard's response: “We're going to tell everyone and offer them a replacement. It would be better to never make a dime of profit than to have a product out there with a problem.”
They sold 300,000 in the 3 years that model was available.
“It would be better to never make a dime of profit than to have a product out there with a problem” is the reason they made a profit.