Hello everyone. I'm trying to collect some interesting statistics on Casio Prizm calculators, more specifically:
- Approximate values for how many of these calculators exist, and how many are usually produced per month;
- Whether the rate of production has been increasing or decreasing;
- How long, on average, it takes for a calculator to be bought after being built;
- Approximate values for how many calculators are sold by country/website;
- What OS version the calculators run and what is/was the preloaded version;
- How many calculators exist with each hardware revision, and figure out when each revision was introduced, etc.
To calculate these values, I'm collecting product IDs of fx-CG 10 and 20 models (product IDs, perhaps more commonly known as "serial numbers", even though on the Prizm they are not really serial). These are the sequences of 15 characters printed on the small white sticker on the back of the calculator, along with a barcode, that start with 755.
The first two points should be possible to figure out as long as one has a big enough sample of product IDs. This is because the ID contains the month and year of production, along with the serial number for the month (see more details here:
http://prizm.cemetech.net/index.php/Product_ID_Information ).
The other points can be a little harder to obtain, but not impossible. It would depend on how much information people have and are willing to share. It's understandable that not everyone is willing to open their calculator to know the hardware revision, for example. Things like the installed OS version or the country where the calc was purchased are easier to remember, but I understand that not everyone is willing to share them (if the project is successful, though, it could be possible to make correlations based on people who shared such information).
To collect the necessary data, tny. internet media has built this website:
http://prizmid.tny.im/ It is where statistics will be published once we have enough entries for a proper analysis.
It takes less than five minutes (I mean, really. Unless the product ID has become unreadable and you need some more effort to read it) to submit a product ID. Everything is explained on the website.
Prizm Product ID surveyFAQ (in addition to the one which is on the website):
Q: Turns out my product ID had already been submitted, but I never visited this website before?
A: I already submitted the product IDs I could find on this thread:
https://www.omnimaga.org/casio-prizm/your-calculator-serial-number/ , along with the preloaded OS version when one was published. If you have more information to add, just re-submit the product ID with more information (make sure to select the correct preloaded OS version, so no information is lost).
Q: I have more than one Prizm...
A: You can submit them all if you wish.
Q: I have one/two/three/... broken Prizm(s). Should I participate?
A: Yes, you can submit all of them if you wish; "current OS version" would mean "OS version it had installed when it broke". Make sure to put "broken", "dead" or something like that in the comments field, in case I decide to exclude those from some statistics.
Q: Is it dangerous/does it bring any problem to share the product ID?
A: As far as I know, no. So far, Casio hasn't asked for the product ID for anything (it's not like with some TI calculators where you need it for a software license or something like that, not sure) and the product ID alone doesn't contain any personal information; depending on the results of the analysis, it could become possible to know, in a not very precise manner, where the calculator was bought (in terms of country/website), but I doubt the information collected will allow for that.
Q: The sticker on mine wore out, is there any way to know the ID?
A: No, as far as I know.
If you have any more questions or concerns, do not hesitate to ask, either here or through the email address listed on the website.
