The same calculator has been on most kids’ back to school shopping list since the early 2000’s and the dominance of Texas Instruments’ calculator division goes back even farther.
The hidden monopoly behind your TI graphing calculator
On Version History: Nilay Patel and Victoria Song recount their memories of their iconic and expensive calculators.
On Version History: Nilay Patel and Victoria Song recount their memories of their iconic and expensive calculators.
In the next episode of Version History, David Pierce is joined by The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Victoria Song to tell the story of TI graphing calculators and how one company managed to take over the market and never let it go.
This is the second episode of the fifth season of Version History where we’re heading back to school. We’ve already talked about the perilous journeys of The Oregon Trail that many students experienced in the computer lab and over the course of the next few weeks we’ll talk about the One Laptop Per Child, Chromebook, LeapPad, and the overhead projector.
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If you’re a Verge subscriber, you can also get access to Version History (and all our other podcasts) with no ads. All you have to do is visit your account settings.
If you want to know more about TI Graphing Calculator history, here are some links to get you started:
- From Washington Post: The unstoppable TI-84 Plus: How an outdated calculator still holds a monopoly on classrooms
- From New York Times: State adding a tool for 8th grade math
- From ProMarket: TI’s Calculator Monopoly Offers Lessons for Educators in the Age of Generative AI
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