Stop into almost any secondary school mathematics classroom in America today, and you will find that Texas Instruments graphing calculators dominate the scene. Back in the early 90's, Texas Instruments began a pattern of releasing a series of graphing calculators that were all extremely similar, with only small updates to the hardware and operating system: the TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, and lastly, the TI-84, in 2004. They were all received with great popularity, and since each successor was so similar to the one that came before it, it was simple for adults and kids to catch on.
After a decade of Texas Instruments dominating the calculator market, you may wonder if there's even another choice out there any more. The short answer is, "yes," and it comes through Casio of America. Casio has been promoting itself in two ways in recent years, simplicity and affordability. Their products live up to the press on both fronts.
In terms of cost, Casio products are significantly less than the TI products they compete with. Of course, it's not an apples to apples comparison, but the Casio 9860GII and 9750GII are both significantly cheaper than any TI graphing calculators. The 9750GII actually retails for under , making it by far the lease expensive graphing calculator from a top manufacturer on the market. The graphical menu system on these devices is also extremely easy for novices to use.
The future of Texas Instruments, however, is the TI-Nspire. Introduced in 2007, this device features high resolution, grey scale display, drop down menus, point and click interface, and the ability to create documents. Casio has had nothing to compete against this calculator until now. In October, Casio announced their new calculator, the Casio Prizm. It's a high resolution, color calculator with the ability to graph functions right onto photographs. The marketing video doesn't hide the fact that Casio is targeting the TI-Nspire with this release.
The battle for marketplace supremacy is once again on. Texas Instruments has a commanding head start, but Casio now has an innovative new product. When the Casio Prizm comes out in early 2011, expect a huge struggle for market share between these two companies.
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