1972 · Low-Cost Personal Calculator · Work 937 of 1,871
The scoring table of a bowling alley on a busy evening, on the pale wooden table a flat landscape calculator fifteen centimetres wide in finely grained black plastic with brushed aluminium strips along its top and bottom edges, at the left a dark rectangular window, unlit and blank, at the right a grid of sixteen round cream and grey keys, all plain smooth and unmarked, a hand with a rolled-up shirt sleeve tapping a key, a yellow pencil beside it, behind, far out of focus, polished lanes and bright lights.
What it was used for
Casio brought out the Mini, a calculator for personal use, in August 1972 at 12,800 yen; by the company's own account that was about 1 third the price of competing products and the machine was 1 quarter the size of mainstream models. The display had 6 digits and was intended for use at home, while 8 digits were standard on office calculators. Among the ideas behind the development, Casio's company history names bowling, popular in Japan and scored by hand at the time; by Casio's account, the Mini put a calculator in every home.
What was new
What marked it was what it left out: 6 digits instead of the office standard of 8, a smaller case, a third of the price. According to Casio it was also made possible by components developed specially for mass production and by large-scale integrated circuits (LSI). At the time a calculator selling 100,000 units a year counted as a success; of the Casio Mini, the company states, 1 million were sold in the first 10 months. Casio calls it a mega hit.
What the sources leave open: All figures come from Casio's own company history, that is from the manufacturer; no independent confirmation of the 1 million in 10 months is presented here. The page names neither display type nor chip.