+Home | Friden 130 Exhibit | Friden 132 Exhibit | Museum | Wanted | Advertising | Articles |
Advertisement Announcing Major Price
Reductions for the
Friden 130 and
Friden 132
Electronic Calculators
Newsweek Magazine, May, 1967
By the mid-part of 1967, Friden's initial entries into the electronic
calculator marketplace were beginning to show their age. Intense
competition, some domestic, but mostly from the Japanese calculator
manufacturers Hayakawa Electric (Sharp), Casio, and Canon, had begun to put
severe price pressure on the electronic calculator marketplace. Electronic
calculators from competitors were smaller,
had more capabilities, and, most importantly were less-expensive than
Friden's machines, requiring reductions in the price of the 130 and 132
calculators to allow them to remain somewhat competitive in the marketplace.
The major advantage Friden had going for them was that they were a
very well-known calculator company with an outstanding reputation
in the industry. Reputation in this industry was
a huge selling point that Singer/Friden definitely leveraged, and
despite the less-expensive calculators coming from Japan, Friden's
strong reputation for solid and reliable calculating machines did provide
them an advantage, although as time went on, that advantage became less
of a force as the Japanese manufacturers gained their own reputation for
producing high quality, reliable electronic calculators.
This advertisement is the earliest found thus far that uses the new, more
modern font for the Friden logo.