Casio of America scientific calculators, a tough TI competitor
Stop into almost any high school mathematics classroom in the United States today, and you will find that Texas Instruments graphing calculators dominate the room. It’s been this way for over a decade. In the early part of the last decade, TI began a pattern of introducing a series of graphing calculators that were all intricately connected, with only minor updates to the hardware and operating system: the TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, and lastly, the TI-84, in the year 2004. These calculators were received with huge success, and since each successor was so much like the one that came before it, it was simple for adults and kids to catch on.
After many years of Texas Instruments control, you may wonder if there’s even an alternative available any more. The answer is, “yes,” and it comes in the form of Casio of America. Casio has been marketing itself on two fronts in recent years, simplicity and affordability. Their calculators live up to the hype on both fronts.
In terms of price, Casio products are significantly less than the Texas Instruments calculators they compete with. Of course, it’s not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but the Casio 9750GII and 9860GII are both significantly cheaper than any TI graphing calculators. The 9750GII actually is available for less than $50, making it by far the cheapest 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 TI, however, is the TI-Nspire. It came out in 2007, and this device features high resolution, grey scale display, drop down menus, a mouse like interface, and the ability to create documents. Casio has had nothing to compete against this device until now. In October , Casio announced their new calculator,the Casio Prizm. It’s a high res, color calculator with the ability to graph functions right onto photographs. The marketing video makes it clear that Casio is going after the Nspire with this release.
The Prizm is not Casio’s sole weapon. They additionally boast the ClassPad, the only touchscreen calculator currently being made. While it’s not allowed on standardized tests, the draw is still difficult to argue against.
The battle for marketplace supremacy is once again on. Texas Instruments has a large head start, but Casio now has an revolutionary new product. When the Casio Prizm comes out in January 2011, expect a big fight for market share between these two manufacturers.
For more information about calculators visit Tech Powered Math. There, you can read about online tutoring reviews.
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