Incredible Scientific Calculator Made in China

[raydpratt]

A couple of days ago I was in the 99¢ Store and I bought a little 10-digit scientific calculator for $1.09 with tax. It is made in China, and I was skeptical about the quality, and even the cashier told me that some of the keys often do not work.

 

However, so far, all the keys work, and I have been able to start studying trigonometry again (I had sold my prior $250 beast of a calculator when my money got tight).

 

There may be quality-control issues with the calculator, but mine works fine, and I'm really impressed. The exact same calculator is being advertized on Amazon for $7.95, which it would probably be worth if the quality assurance were there. See:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Digit-Electronic-Scientific-Calculator-Cover/dp/B006KTXVEW

 

That said, I'd get over to some dollar stores if I were interested and get this calculator.

 

I wanted to share this because I hope this is a sign of a better future for the quality of Chinese products. I like this calculator!

[abcdefg]

Sounds like a hell of a deal!

[Meng Lelan]

Dang, just when I was helping my kids with trig and here is such a great deal of a calculator! Hopefully it does this in 中文 too so they can learn that and trig at the same time. One calculator two purposes,  一举两得!

[johnk]

When I was a kid, I went with my dad to the local farm machinery shop. He needed to buy some tool to fix a tractor. The only version of this tool they had in stock was one made in Japan. The alternative was one made in the UK at twice the cost and a weeks's lead time. My father refused to buy a part made in Japan, because everyone knew it was "made of cheese and would break the first time you looked at it". So he ordered the part from the UK and waited a week. This was probably in the 70's or maybe even the 60's.

My take on this was that western firms were outsourcing their manufacturing and specifying the cheapest possible price. We demand the cheapest price (or maybe it is better to say that traders demand the greatest profit margins), consequently we get products that are total rubbish. It was Japan in the 60's, it is China today. The Japanese developed their own brands and made them worth something, China can do this as well, although it seems to be going very slowly.

BTW A few years after this, the family car died, my father bought a Toyota Carina as a stopgap. He discovered the meaning of the word 'reliability' and his attitude towards Japanese products changed completely.

[simpleasy]

I agree, Chinese brands will most likely become quality products in time. Actually one can almost be sure about this. It can only be avoided when demand for Chinese export suddenly decreases before its consumption is quite a bit bigger than its export. Which, in my opinion, is unlikely to happen.

It's always interesting to see how most people envision the future to be much more advanced in terms of technology etc, while being exactly the same in terms of global power and social structures. 

What I mean to say is, when you ask someone what is most likely to happen in the next 20 years, many will answer something like 'flying cars'. While almost no one will say: 'China developing quality products'. Nonetheless, the latter is definitely more likely.

[hackinger]

Hi,

I have an old scientific calculator bought 25 years ago which still works well. It cost 11 USD and it is made in Hongkong. Of course nowadays I use my smartphone also  as scientific calculator.

@Johnk
I guess the change in attitude was completed In the 80's and 90's  when Europe or rather some European countries worried about Japanese imports, but the UK invited Japanese car makers to set up shop in Britain. Some worried French then called the UK a "Japanese aircraft carrier off the coast of Europe".

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19920131&slug=1473172

(paragraphs 9 and 10)

I of course love my 20 year old Mazda 323 which I bought used 10 years ago. When I recently went to the "Tüv" to let them do the required  periodic safety check, I was initially worried, because they inspected my car twice as long as the others. I was reassured though  when I finally heard them saying "Japanese Quality!". They congratulated me to the state of my car and told me a few horror stories about some fairly  new cars which they inspected.

Cheers

hackinger
 

[imron]

I have a Casio SuperFX 100D scientific calculator from highschool, some 20 years ago - it still runs off the same battery!  It sits by my desk and I probably use it 2-3 times a day because it's instant on and faster to grab it than using the one on my phone or computer.

[abcdefg]

I hear from hobbyist friends that Chinese optical products, such as telescopes for amateur astronomy, are already very high quality.

 

And I've read about China's plans to build a huge linear supercollider, which is no mean feat. Supposedly it will generate seven times the energy of the one in Geneva.

 

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/national/China-supercollider-plan-for-God-particle-studies/shdaily.shtml

[MeiMay]

"It is made in China, and I was skeptical about the quality"

"I wanted to share this because I hope this is a sign of a better future for the quality of Chinese products"

Wow. Just wow.

[johnk]

I remember the "Japanese aircraft carrier off the coast of Europe" era myself.

I read an article about some automotive expert saying "it took the Japanese 20 years to learn how to build a car to western standards, it took the Koreans 10 years and it will take the Chinese 5 years". So far China has not broken into the western car markets. My take is that the internal China market is still big enough for the local manufacturers. They don't need foreign markets in the same way the Japanese did in the 80s.

I also read an article by a motoring correspondent who was given a Chery as a hire car in Italy. Initially he was dubious about driving a Chinese car, but he wrote a very positive review about it after a week's driving.

I was in the market for a new smart phone myself about a year ago. One of my workmates has a no-name Chinese phone. He has no complaints about it. So I bought one too. My phone is not Samsung quality, but at 1/3 the price, I am very happy with it.

One of my Chinese readers is entitled 中国进行时，we live in interesting times.

[abcdefg]

I have a Huawei 华为 phone. Model C8815, latest Android OS. 900 Yuan. Not bad.

[icebear]

So far China has not broken into the western car markets. My take is that the internal China market is still big enough for the local manufacturers. They don't need foreign markets in the same way the Japanese did in the 80s.

 

Mid and upper market segments are pretty heavily dominated by western brands within China. Western brands sell at a substantial premium compared to abroad, even after accounting for tax differences. Essentially the Chinese know they're getting screwed price-wise simply by strong branding, but happily pay more and more.

 

My anecdotal understanding from local friends is that the following are considered:

a) why buy a cheap Chinese car that costs less than my license plate and related documents?

b) if I have to wait x months/years to win the license plate lottery, better save for a nicer car (better face)

c) if the car has an issue later on, will I or the manufacturer pay? What if the issue warrants a recall - which manufacturer is more likely to follow through properly?

 

C may be an unfair characterization against local brands, but is a widespread perception and thus has a impact on behavior. A and B are pretty clear facts about car purchasing in China's Tier 1 and perhaps Tier 2 cities. Even in smaller cities where license plates are not a big issue, face is, as are safety and reliability. 

 

Edit: to add to this, and comment on the Japanese car brands. I recall a podcast on this topic a few months ago that was discussing how branding in China is still very basic or even dismissed. The argument was that Chinese consumers view branding by Chinese companies as swindling them - making them pay more than what a razor thin profit margin would require. As a result Chinese manufacturers are ultra competitive on costs and pricing but not so much on getting their name embedded (save a few examples).

 

The discussion then shifted to a great analogy - by the time "Japan mania" had gripped middle-class America, with fears of the coming job-drain, Japanese brands across many high-value added sectors were thoroughly enmeshed in the public awareness - Sony, Toyota, Honda, etc. South Korea had many also, as did Taiwan (perhaps less so). You could approach any random Joe on the street and ask him to name 5 Asian brands and they would all be from these countries - and he could probably tell you about the specs!

 

China is no where near that now - at I least am very skeptical that a random American in suburban America could name a single Chinese brand if prompted. If asked to name the 5-10 biggest Asian brands very unlikely that a  single Chinese would be included. Maybe Haier for white goods, or Huawei for the wrong reasons. 

[Shelley]

I have Huawei Blaze phone. great little phone runs Pleco just fine, does texting and phone calls well. What more could you want

Had for about a 18 months no problems, when I eventually upgrade it will be Huawei again. (and no i don't work for them )

[raydpratt]

MeiMay:

 

Does "不哈哈，不好" mean 'not laughing, not good'? I understand that my comments can be offensive, but the main point that I had hoped to make is that a stereotype can be wrong, and that I was admitting that I was wrong (as to one severly under-priced product).

 

We Americans went through a period of product shame ourselves with Detroit cars versus Japanese cars, and now it's still somewhat hard to convince us that a new Ford model is as good as a Honda (not better, but only as good as).

 

And, frankly, we Americans don't make iPhones, they are "designed in Cupertino," California, but made in China, for sale in the U.S., for tax havens overseas. However, it is a high-quality product, known the world over, and made in China. Some of the other comments posted here point out that American companies or multinationals are the ones specifying the quality, and are not the ones who are being disappointed.

 

Again, I apologize if I offended you.

[MeiMay]

raydpratt: no, the 不哈哈 part is onematopoeic/Chinglish, as in: bwoo ha ha. The rest is Chinese

It's good that you can admit the stereotype being wrong but it would be even better if you didn't cultivate such stereotypes in the first place. Thank you for your apology. I can add for my own part that though I buy most of my electronics (and most of the stuff I buy, period) from China, Korea and Japan (in that order, I think) and only buy a few things that were made in Europe or USA I've been far more disappointed with the latter than the former. That includes some expensive precision manufactured equipment where USA and Europe aren't really even in the market, at least not in the individual buyer market. I have something to share from just two days ago: I accidentally dropped an electronic device (hard plastic housing, metal mount, no rubber/anything to soften the blow) from the height of 6' (2m) onto a hard tile floor and I was already thinking I need to buy a new one but I picked it up, put the batteries back in and turned it on and tested it for basic functions and it worked perfectly! I was really positively surprised. I've had some similar sized devices with plastic housing not survive a drop like that. The plastic doesn't even have cracks! I'm sure you can guess... Made in China (go SZ!)

China has more than 4 times as many people as the USA and the USA has its share of dishonest companies. Of course China has its share of dishonest companies as well but that says nothing about the quality of quality products made in China. Also I believe that generally it's easier for a company to be rotten and get away with it in the USA than it is in China. The USA has a long history of leaving companies well alone or following up gross misconduct and illegal/harmful deeds by corporations with nothing but a slap on the wrist. I don't want to start a long discussion on that though, I think neither of us can really know the numbers so a long discussion is pointless. The main point was this: it matters where you shop regardless what country we're talking about.

[raydpratt]

MeiMay:

 

I can't even tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat anymore -- they could trade labels and spout their platforms, and no one could guess who is who. No offense taken, and I agree with you about the general level of dishonesty in American business. I can prove that I agree with you with something that I filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas:

 

http://interchange.puc.state.tx.us/WebApp/Interchange/Documents/41111_17_754245.PDF

 

If you scroll through the PDF, you'll see facts about American electricty providers that gouge and steal at will.