I bought my first electronic calculator several years ago when I was in grad school. It was made by Texas Instruments and was a little bigger than a deck of cards. It could add, subtract, multiply, and divide much faster and more accurately than I could with my old slide rule.
I paid $100 for it. After a couple weeks, I put my slide rule away and never used it again.
Today you can find smaller calculators with more power at the Dollar Store. As manufacturers skill increased, the price went down. The fancy economic term for this phenomenon is “learning curve.” You see this in other products as well
The first computer I worked on was custom built for the Air Force, about the size of a small gymnasium, cost several million dollars, and had a small fraction of the capacity of a modern iPad. My first PC cost about a $1,000 and was little more than a word processor. The computer industry learned to produce better but less expensive machines. “Learning curve” is not limited to electronics.
As Air Force pilots get older, they are allowed to wear glasses as long as their sight is correctable to 20/20. I wore horn rimmed glasses and looked a lot like Clark Kent.
When I was assigned to a desk job, I decided I wanted to look more like Superman, so I was fitted for contact lenses. At the time, contacts were like little glass coverings, and took some getting used to before you didn’t feel like you had sand in your eyes. It was painful if you forgot to take them out before you took a nap. About the time soft lenses came out, my local optometrist quit handling them because there was no longer any money in it.
Today’s lenses come on a roll like postage stamps. You peel off a pair, wear them day and night for a few days then throw them away. The industry learned to make better, cheaper, products.
I thought “learning curve” applied to all manufactured products, so I was baffled to discover it doesn’t apply to cell phones. I held out probably longer than I should have until I had problems with my new used car 12 years ago.
I was at a pet supply store buying dog food and my car wouldn’t start. I went back into the store and asked if I could use a phone to call roadside assistance. They didn’t have a phone!
I talked a clerk into making the call for me on her cell phone. My car problem turned out to be operator error. I didn’t know that convertibles wouldn’t start if the door was locked. When I got home, I finally acquiesced to my wife’s urging and followed her to a phone store.
All I needed was to be able to call her if I was going to be late for dinner, and the store had the ideal instrument for me. A $19 flip phone. Perfect. I learned to store phone numbers and even learned to send text messages on the 10 button keyboard. I had joined the electronic age. My battery died about five years ago, and I was mildly surprised that a replacement battery was twice the price of the original phone.
After 12 years of faithful service, the screen on my phone went blank, so I carried my faithful communication device into the phone store to be told it had breathed its last, and I needed a replacement. The clerk said they had a special deal on upgrades with additional features. I told him I didn’t want additional features. I have never asked my phone to do anything but make calls and send occasional text messages. The clerk informed me that for a few extra dollars I could have GPS, Google, and networking. For just a bit more, I could get voice activation and a special feature to sing “Happy Birthday” and tell jokes.
I was further advised that a monthly payment plan was preferable to cash. I declined all his suggestions and requested a plain vanilla flip phone like my old one. He grumbled then went into the back room and returned with the message that they were out of stock. They could order me one, however, for $364 if I obtained my wife’s permission.
I left the store and told my wife I was incapable of ordering a phone, so I wouldn’t be able to call her when I was late for dinner. She promised to take care of it. I don’t know what that means, but I still don’t have a phone.
Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 19 years.
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