Editing Calculator (section)

====Mass-market phase====
At the start of the 1970s, hand-held electronic calculators were very costly, at two or three weeks' wages, and so were a luxury item. The high price was due to their construction requiring many mechanical and electronic components which were costly to produce, and production runs that were too small to exploit [[economies of scale]]. Many firms saw that there were good profits to be made in the calculator business with the margin on such high prices. However, the cost of calculators fell as components and their production methods improved, and the effect of economies of scale was felt.

By 1976, the cost of the cheapest four-function pocket calculator had dropped to a few dollars, about 1/20 of the cost five years before. The results of this were that the pocket calculator was affordable, and that it was now difficult for the manufacturers to make a profit from calculators, leading to many firms dropping out of the business or closing. The firms that survived making calculators tended to be those with high outputs of higher quality calculators, or producing high-specification scientific and programmable calculators.{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}}