Organization: Computer Science Outreach Services - Oregon State University
Cc:
In article <1992Jul22.192803.28604@vaxc.aud.auc.dk> you write:
>Hello Handheld Enthusiasts,
>
>It just came to my mind that TI "many" years ago announced a follow-up to the TI-59 which I think was named TI-88. I do remember a discussion on this machine in the danish TI user group magazine but I havn't seen the beast or even heard about anyone who actually owned one. Do some of you know what happend with the TI-88 (or whatever the named was)??????
>
>
>\peter
I am the proud owner of the Portable Computer and Calculator Catalog
1982/1983 which was out of Dallas TX. It features the Sharp PC-1500,
TI-88, HP-41 and HP-IL system, TI-58/TI-59 and scads of lesser machines.
Pages 4 & 5 show full frontal color picture of the TI-88 along with the
PC-80 printer and the CA-800 cassette interface. ($260, $150, $50 respectively)
In bold print it said `Availability expected late 4th quarter'.
The TI-88 was quite a nice looking machine, compact, with a tilted up screen,
230 built in functions, and two ports.
The discussions at that time, as I remember, were that the machine was
targeted at the HP-41 which had all but buried the TI-59. There was indeed
an initial production run of some thousands of machines, and press kits were
sent out. Folks may even have seen them at trade shows (anyone?). For some
reason the machine was canned at the last minute and NEVER released.
I believe some hard core collectors managed to get a machine from insiders
(anyone). Either way, due to the political in-fighting at TI over the whole
thing (don't know which came first?) heads rolled in abundance, and it
represented TIs last ditch effort to be in the advanced calculator market.
--
jeremy@jacobs.cs.orst.edu (Jeremy |-) Smith)
I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that... well, yes I can!