This morning, a friend of mine who visited us at World Maker Faire 2015 forwarded an interesting article he had recently read to me:
http://mic.com/articles/125829/your-old-texas-instruments-graphing-calculator-still-costs-a-fortune-heres-why

I hope you'll read the article in full, but the high-level takeaways I got from the author were the following:
1) TI calculators are only purchased because teachers tell students to buy them.
2) TI calculators are expensive and have not evolved with other technology.
3) Teachers continue to evangelize calculators because of professional development including T^3.
4) Teachers are largely responsible for the growth of the T^3 conference.
5) Texas Instruments disadvantages lower-class students who can't afford calculators.
6) Graphing calculators are dying and will soon be replaced by iPads running the Desmos App.

What do you think about these claims from the article? If you need a counterpoint that may have other biases in the opposite direction, compare the article's claims to our interview with Dr. Peter Balyta, president of TI. I have mixed feelings about the article: although the points about professional development are true, and have given TI an edge over HP and Casio, I (1) don't feel their competitors' devices are cheaper, and (2) feel that graphing calculators, including TI's, offer a genuine pedagogical advantage in the classroom. The final third of that article also felt like a bit of a shill for Desmos to me, for some reason.

What do you think?

I read the article but I'm going to answer according to your list so we know what we are talking about.

1) For the first part, it's completely true. In France we have a lot of high school newcomers who buy the stupid 82 Advanced (which should be called 84 Retarded) even though the 83PCE is a lot (read: a lot) better and not a lot more expensive. And most of the time, it's not because of the price, just because their list had the number 82 on it.
But on the other hand, I don't think teachers would appreciate to have to learn about 30 calculator models so of course they advise the one they know, and if you buy another one, don't expect your teacher to know everything. And it's not only TI, some schools in France advise Casio (which is not less expensive, just look at the CP-400).

2) Not exactly true but not really false either. I mean, just look at the CX CAS. It does all the computations you want on a color screen, so calculators did evolve. Then, ok, if you compare its specs with those of the latest computers, you're going to laugh. But why would you need the power to run GTA V if all you're supposed to do is graphs ? I only agree with the "too expensive" part, but then it's in contradiction with the "not powerful" part, because making them more powerful would make them more expensive for no valid reason.

3,4) I don't know enough about the T^3 to talk about this.

6) iPad is quantity. Calcs are quality. I mean that maybe the iPad does everything, but calculators are made for calculations. They have buttons for example as mentionned in the article, so you can type your calculation faster. It's the same story as for eReaders. Maybe the iPad can read too, but it doesn't read as well as eReaders. So maybe eReader and calcs are worthless out of their domain but they're the best at what they are supposed to do. Just make that Desmos App on a dedicated device with buttons and a reasonable battery range and then ok, we can talk about that advertisement again.

5) Too expensive ? Maybe, but do you really think this will be solved with iPads ? Or maybe those iPads will be given for free but then, why not do this now with calcs ?

TLDR:
I don't know about the T^3.
Calcs are dedicated devices with sufficient hardware and they fulfill their job perfectly. TI doesn't really have a full monopoly (at least not in France) but it's normal not to see tons of brands since teachers won't learn all the differences between models, so you'll basically find TI-schools and Casio-schools. They might be too expensive but replacing them with iPads won't solve that problem.

And I didn't even mention programming.

A few points I'd like to poke:
1) Lets be honest, the ti-83's performance when compared to today's technology is quite horrific (the newer calcs are slightly better but still)... Maybe in the 80s and 90s, this kind of technology would have cost a fortune, but today, I don't see why it should.
2) To be honest I kind of agree with the guy who wrote this article on many points, they are surely far too expensive for what they have to offer (an app on your phone could do the same) but they are also VERY helpful in the classroom. For example, I own a ti-nspire, and although most of my classes don't allow me to use it during exams, I can always use it to check my answers when I'm working, and even check what the graph of a function would look like in a jiffy.
I think teachers use these calculators because thy have always used them and they believe it genuinely helps students learn, which if it is the case, then I don't see why we would stop using them. It's like saying we shouldn't attend chemistry lectures because you can find all that information online... While this is true, it doesn't mean people should stop attending chemistry lectures.

I had seen this article elsewhere.
The point about calculators being severely outdated technology sold at extremely high price tags is based on a fact and obviously valid. Multiple of us have been making it for years, and the gap between modern platforms and calculators is only widening.

On the mid-end of the market place, the TI-eZ80 series is a step in the right direction (the plain old Z80 is so 1970s), but it's nowhere near enough yet. With 1-1.5 MB of RAM of a 4x faster model (0 wait states), 8-12 MB of NOR Flash of a 4x or 8x faster model (0 or 1 wait states), a battery of even higher capacity, and a halved end user price tag (the distribution channel adds very little value but multiplies the price tag by 3 or 4 - that's another story), it would be closer to decent...

The primary driver of Texas Instruments' incumbency.

I believe this to be very true. TI calculators have been around for decades and it's likely a mix of parents familiarity with the brand as well as the educational institutions pushing for their use. Plus the fact that the American system is slow to adopt new technologies.

Personally I have mixed views on this.

• I think TI's dominating "appeal" is appropriate as that way every student learns the same way and teachers can be better equipped to help students who fall behind. It ensures everyone is on the same page doing the same steps. Whereas multiple devices can slow down a lesson because students aren't familiar with their calculator or program of choice.
  
• On the other hand teaching with one device, a la TI-83s, creates a cookie cutter environment. Every student in the school is forced to learn the same way. By doing this you enforce that there's only one way to accomplish a task or overcome a problem. In the real world there's always another method to the madness which achieves an identical result. It's like if maps directions were given like education is taught in school. "No, the only way from Point A to B is this route." If you don't give a map to the driver - or let them learn the roads - they'll be none the wiser. However, if you let the driver learn the roads and give them a map they'll be able to arrive at Point B via another route. Maybe it'll be faster, or slower. But the point is, if there's an obstacle along the suggested route, and someone isn't taught to think of another way, they'll be stuck for a while.

There's no reason they should cost so much, and it's shutting out students who can't afford them.

Well. All that bureaucracy costs something and it's obviously passed down to the consumer. Not to long ago we had a price breakdown for the TI-83, Tari concluded it costs less than $26 to source TI-83 hardware from scratch, while my ballpark figure for the plastic case and keys is around 4 dollars. Then any costs for packaging and assembly. So, an additional 2 dollar maybe? So $32 could be the upper end, while maybe $18 is the lower end when the hardware is bought in such a large volume. For anyone who wants to get picky, these numbers are not accurate or representative. The point is, it's comparatively cheap to mass produce these calculators. The costs behind the equipment required to stamp these out have already been recovered decades ago most likely. So, assuming $18 per calculator, which is in line with what the article states as well, that means roughly $82 goes towards paying publishers to use their calculator in textbooks and towards TI's bank, which TI's cut helps pay for R&D towards new devices such as the TI-84 CE. However, I think 40-60 dollars would be a more justified price point for a calculator like the TI-83.

There's an app for that — if it can manage to unseat the reigning king of calculation.

While I'm a huge fan of apps, I tend to agree that tactile buttons are supreme. A personal example is my TV remote. I could change channels, inputs, adjust volume and settings without looking at the remote. And, my remote was bluetooth so I could use it under blankets. But it broke so I installed an app on my phone to control my TV. I can no longer feel for buttons, I must look at my phone to press the right button. On a calculator, it's possible to learn the positions of buttons and functions/tokens in the menus. Requiring only to look at the calculator after you press "[ENTER]." I feel more productive with a tactile button interface.

The "App for that Mentality" is lame. Pulling from my experience as a Target Team Member, we started using iPods in place of the heavy and huge PDAs towards the end of my employment. While both devices had "apps" for things, the iPod was by far the worst. On the iPod there was no system wide authentication, so when I opened an app I had to sign in to it. I'd get "logged out" of an app after about 10 minutes of inactivity (as imposed by Apples 10 minute limit in keeping apps running in the background.) Now, letting the clunky PDA represent a proper Graphing Calculator (TI, HP, Casio, etc), everything was under one roof. It was efficient and proven under years of use. I don't really have a better example than that, but I'd rather use the PDA over the iPod any day, much like I'd rather use a graphing calculator over their app counterparts.

Maybe there will come an app that does everything better than a graphing calc does but it won't ever have tactile buttons that I can learn by feel and it's why I'll rarely use the app.

Things are changing.

Good. Things need to change. While the point of this article seemed to subtly push the Desmos app for iPad I think that educational institutions need to be open to other apps. Those apps should follow guidelines to be certified, I think a King-of-the-Hill approach is still wrong. If Desmos becomes the next TI-83, what's stopping them from charging $40 for the app? On top of the price for an iPad. Thankfully the App appears to be free (and I grabbed a copy to review later!).

We need to adapt to changing technology. We need to be swift with this change and understand that we can't keep teaching to old standards.

People who argue that calculators are going to be replaced, en masse, by x in the high school education market, where x is literally any device with built in wireless communication, haven't spent enough time thinking about the issue to listen to (unless they're also articulating a plan to scrap the entire standardized testing process as it relates to college admissions).

This, a hundred times this. Instead of sticking to the old way of doing things, school govering bodies need to realize that there is no way they can stop the new technology, and that they should embrace it rather than fight it.

Fortunately, the realization is starting to sink in at some levels: http://etag.report/foreword/