RISMEDIA, April 5, 2007-As part of a year-long celebration of its 35th anniversary in the handheld calculator business, HP announced a nationwide competition inviting entrants to submit short videos that capture the essence of their personal experiences with, emotions toward or artistic interpretations of HP calculators.
The "HP Calculator Casting Call" contest runs through May 31, 2007, and is open to U.S. residents. Finalists in each award category will win an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood, Calif., to participate in the HP Golden Calculator Awards ceremony on July 12, 2007.
"HP calculator users' passion and loyalty are legendary. With this contest, we want to capture and share this enthusiasm and creative energy with the rest of the world, including the new online generation," said Jeff Robbins, director of marketing, Calculator Division, Personal Systems Group, HP. "We entered the handheld calculator market 35 years ago with a revolutionary product that virtually rendered the slide rule obsolete, and we are still going strong today as a result of our product innovation that continually exceeds our users' needs."
Video entries can take the form of a documentary, commercial or any appropriate theme the contestant envisions, but they must be limited to three minutes in length or 100 megabytes in file size. Entries will be judged by a panel on the basis of best actor, best actress, most creative and most technical. In addition, a Voters' Choice award will be selected from the category finalists by an online popular vote, and the winner will receive an HP 50-inch High-Definition Plasma TV. Additional details about the contest and rules are available at www.hp.com/go/35celebration.
In 1972, HP introduced the world's first scientific pocket calculator – the HP-35 – and delivered portable "computing power" into the hands of everyday users. The HP-35 was an instant hit among scientists and engineers and soon displaced the then ubiquitous slide rule. HP went on to become one of the leading developers of high-performance, high-quality programmable calculators for the business and scientific marketplace.
Today, HP's high-end graphing calculators offer more connectivity options and greater configurability than other calculators in their class, and the HP 12c Financial Calculator has become an industry standard in the business and finance community with more than 15 million units sold to date.
Information about HP's complete line of graphing, scientific and financial calculators, as well as on-demand training videos, computer-based training and step-by-step learning modules for each of HP's current calculators is available at www.hp.com/calculators.
HP calculators are available at select retailers and bookstores across the United States. A complete list of resellers is available at www.hp.com/calculator/resellers.
For more information, visit www.hp.com.
