According to Casio Electronics Co Ltd and parent Casio Computer Co Ltd, worldwide sales of the company's calculators topped the mighty one billion figure last month.
The company was founded in 1957 and during that year created the world's first calculator that ran on all electric relays rather than mechanical gears (and maybe steam?). The device was, by virtue of its vastly superior technology, considered 'compact'. Of course, by today's standards, it would be the calculator equivalent of an oil freighter.
In 1965, Casio kicked it up a notch by introducing an electronic calculator with a memory function (OMG!). In fact, here it is:
The '001' launched in 1965. It did memory and everything!
We may laugh, but such devices formed the basis for the calculators we use today; from tiny, simple, but very useful pocket calculators, to insanely powerful graphic scientific calculators often seen being reprogrammed by extreme nerds. And as we all know, the best bit about modern electronic calculators, is their ability to spell out the word "boobies" (...sigh... type 5318008 and turn it upside down... happy now?)
Casio is delighted with its achievement, the company's President and CEO saying in a press release: "The fact that we have been able to sell one billion calculators is a sign of the confidence that consumers around the world place in Casio products, and I would like to express my sincere appreciation for this support."
By our number crunching, the one billion calculators sold by Casio so far equates to "Error 1" calculators sold every day. Amazing.
We'll leave you with a timeline of Casio calculator milestones, as told by Casio, for those feeling a bit nostalgic:
1957 -- Launch of the 14-A, the world's first fully electric compact relay calculator - On display at the National Science Museum in Japan
1965 -- Began sales of electronic calculators; Launch of the 001, the world's first electronic calculator with memory function*
1969 -- Casio's total global calculator sales reach 100,000
1972 -- Casio Mini, the world's first personal calculator, is launched; Casio's total global sales of calculators pass the 1 million and then 2 million marks*
1974 -- Casio's total global calculator sales reach 10 million
1976 -- Launch of the Denkuro, combination calculator with clock function*
1980 - Casio's total global calculator sales reach 100 million
1983 -- Launch of the SL-800, a 0.8-mm thin credit card size calculator Archived at the Museum of Modern Art, New York*
1985 - Launch of the fx-7000G, the world's first graphing scientific calculator Archived at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.*
2004 -- Launch of the fx-82ES, the first scientific calculator with natural mathematic display
2005 -- Launch of the fx-9860G scientific calculator featuring graphing and natural mathematical display
2006 -- Casio's total global sales reach 1 billion calculators
*Registered as important historical materials in Japanese industrial technology by the National Science Museum in Japan (archived at Casio Computer Co., Ltd.)
