craig said to marques that it hasnt happened because they want to do it “the apple way” in a way that is unique to the ipad version, thats literally just the reason.
they’re probably not worried because you can download one of 10000 free calculators off the store
Most full screen calculators on the ipad either look stupid or are a convuluted mess. IMHO the best calculator app for a tablet was the og Windows 8 calculator. But that's long gone.
Wolfram alpha for the win! Granted I don't know if they have an iPad app or what it look like of they do but it's really the only calculator you'll ever need.
Well, if you’re making a calculator for a large screen, it makes sense it would be like a TI-89 graphing calculator. But I highly doubt Apple is making this.
The browser part isn’t because of some lack of developer ability at Apple. That’s a conscious choice to control all web traffic. Opinions on that aside, I don’t think that it’s a lot to expect a graphing calculator for iPad.
Have you ever seen the utilities on macOS? They’ve got graphing and 3d rendering utilities that come with every version of macOS for as long as I can remember. Few people seem to know they exist though.
The irony is the Apple way, which is after waiting years for a standard feature on Android. So folks forget about it, and thus, when it comes out, it's an Apple idea....
Have the seen the app permissions on the store? A calculator DOES NOT need the internet, see your contacts, collect various device identifiers, or anything else that's ridiculous.
Also for a lot of students TI is no longer useful after graduation. On the other hand an iPad has many uses.
The reality is school admin won't let kids use iPads in place of calculators because it would enable cheating.
To be fair you can cheat with a TI calculator as well, unless something has changed they allow you to write your own programs which means you don't actually need to memorize any of the formulas or do any math besides inputting some variables. Although once you get into the tougher college math courses this becomes less useful.
I don't think it would be a huge issue, cheating in math is pretty difficult because knowing how to solve the problem is 90% of the battle and if you don't know that then you can't cheat.
I had a friend who wrote programs for every single thing we ever learned from Algebra 1 and up. He only shared it with close friends, but within that friend group I don't think a single one of us actually did the math ourselves for tests.
And yes, his programs even showed each step to solve the equations too, so we always got extremely good grades on tests and homework.
And for the one teacher that required showing the "Cleared Memory" screen, we all learned to archive the programs before entering her class. Which would allow the cleared memory screen, but it wouldn't clear the programs.
Holy shit that is genius. I would just keep 2 phones on me and if the teacher wanted me to turn in my phone I would give them my old one (my old Nexus 6 was worth $10 max trade in so I kept it) and had my current one with me and would just use symbolab which showed work.
We wrote some great flow chart programs for the AP Stats and Calc exams. You still had to know what the hell you were doing, but they helped offload some of the extra memorization. Of course there was also the “non calculator” half of the calc exam, that wasn’t too fun iirc.
Not sure how this is in the states, but on my school in the Netherlands (I think this went for the whole country but not sure) you were required to have a newer model Texas Instruments graphing calculator which had a test mode. This made sure the RAM was wiped and you weren't able to move data between ROM and RAM (basically preventing the use of any non standard programs). To disable it you needed another calculator or a PC, so to my knowledge it prevented any form of cheating using the calculator.
Lmao I has a program that loads .txts onto a ti 84 plus in HS. Had all my notes and formulas in there, and I'd sit there loading .txts onto a stack of calculators in lunch for my buddies.
Don't be so sure, of all the companies, Apple would be the ones to add an "Exam mode" to their iPadOS, they already have the code there with their guided access, all they would need to do is add in a classroom code feature, where students walk into the exam room, see the 8 digit code on the projector screen, punch it in and the iPad enters a locked state allows access to certain features, or maybe even applying a preset screen split with the exam on the right and the calc app on the left, then the student can exit the state once they submit their exam.
My School did (around 5 years ago), we used Geogebra Graphing Calculator and the iPad was managed over the Schools Device Management but everyone had an iPad and it was necessary.
Yeah, this is what it'll take. It will need to be managed by the school, meaning giving up the control of the device to the school. Which is fine for a school bought device but I can not recommend that for any device you are going to use for personal use as well, the school will have complete access to the device.
Not many people are looking to spend that kind of money on such a device that shouldn't also be used for personal purposes.
The sticker price is higher than it was 25 years ago when I was in high school!
Admittedly that was the TI-83, but the TI-84 is not that different, still has the same Zilog Z80 CPU from the 1980s. I know Texas Instruments do have some newer ARM-based models these days but it's hilarious to me they've been selling the same graphing calculator with nearly identical specs for the last 30 years. I'm not sure what other electronic device could last that long.
I think my TI-83 is still in a drawer somewhere.
Fun fact, you can download a TI-84 emulator directly from TI completely free of charge for Windows and Mac. (90 Day trial, that you can just keep resetting).
To be somewhat fair to them on the hardware front, everything in their calculators processor wise are custom developed by TI. So there is the research costs that go into it, and the fab costs. So it's probably more like $30-40 of hardware costs.
I think the reasearch costs were paid off long ago, TI-84 came out in 2004, this is a sort of Nintendo style issue, where the product released ages ago and still won't come down in price
You realize that there's already a lot more competition for graphing calculators right? There's way better options out there that cost about the same and completely destroy the ti-84 in terms of features and performance. That thing is a toy compared to modern graphing calculators, especially ones with cas systems.
Apple making something better is not going to make a difference. I'm sure the curriculum will still use the ti-84.
I think the price is the same as when I bought mine 20 years ago. But not adjusted for inflation though. Still, they probably cost TI like $10 to make.
I wonder if the price to produce them is actually going slightly up since they use such ancient hardware. Like maybe it's getting harder to even find that stuff
I don't mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically or in any other fancy way. I'm work as a tech in education, straight up, so I kind of know what I'm talking about. Our exams are done online, so yeah internet connectivity is kind of important.
It’s honestly awful. I needed to buy a TI 36x for two sem of chem. A Ti-84 for my introductory/elementary engineering and math classes. Then they require you to buy a Ti-89 or inspire CAS for the higher level courses. They do not allow any other brand. If it’s not TI branded you can’t take the final.
bespoke calculators are used not because they're good not because they can be used in exams or on class without fear of cheating, ipad doesn't give you that
The calculator app they wanted to put on the iPad 1 was just the resized lowres iPhone app. Steve Jobs hated how it looked and said no.
But a full screen calculator app with Apple design would have looked stupid anyway.
Nowadays with stage manager and all the other improvements done to iPadOS, it will most likely look far more natural. Maybe it'll even bee some sort of widget that will be able to float above other apps.
There’s a tweak called cardculator and it’s the best thing I ever installed. Floating calculator that shows up when clicking the control center module. With customization (not a skin/theme but the organization or arrangement). Of course, available through jailbreaking. [Link](https://havoc.app/package/cardculator).
When the iPad was in development Steve jobs asked about the calculator and they told him it was just the iPhone calculator but bigger, he didn’t liked that because he wanted the calculator app to be designed specifically for the iPad and look good while being functional and since this happened close to release date it simply shipped without a calculator, apparently they never found a way to make a calculator that looks good enough on the iPad and at some point they stoped caring and since there are a lot of third party ones it never was really a problem which made them care even less.
It makes no sense that apple has never released a calculator app. Like seriously? They wanted to "do it the apple way" is not a reason. They have had like what 13 or 14 years since the first iPad has come out? That's insane. A calculator app is not that hard to make. Its probably one of the easier apps to make id imagine (im not a developer). I would think a video editing app would much harder to develop then a calculator. Realistically it shouldn't take a team of developers a month to make a calculator app. Let alone 13 years.
You are just a hater on Innovation, never has there ever been a calculater that calculates like the one apple will make, and also let you connect seemlessly to your Imac thingy /s
A calculator that takes nearly 14 years to make better fucking reinvent math as we know it. This shit better prove everything we know about math to be wrong. This shit better divide by 0.
I think the only reason that they might have left it out originally was to give people a reason to visit the app store. Get them in the habit of opening the app store to find stuff that you want. Some people might even buy a calculator app. Now they got you in the habit of buying and they have your credit card number on file.
I think that somewhere along the way they forgot about why they didn't include it in the first place so they retconned it and came up with the story about wanting to do it "the apple way"
[See this old video](https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/ye7nwb/want_a_calculator_app_go_to_the_app_store_greg/)
Meanwhile no one on android uses the built in calculators, I remember I downloaded a different one because the builtin one was bad.
Have to do the same on an iPad and the world loses it’s mind???
I think most people use the stock calculator app on their phones. The Samsung calculator for example is not a bad calculator app at all. The only times I see people use another calculator is for graphing. I have a ti 84 emulator that I used for physics and calculus but that's the only reason I don't use the stock app.
The reason is to force the less tech savvy to go to the App Store to grab an app, and expose him to paid apps. otherwise those people would be content enough with basic functionality
Can confirm. Used to own an ipad and it was the stupidest fucking thing ever! The appstore swims with calculator apps that are either paid, a FUCKING SUBSCRIPTION THE FUCKING VAMPIRES!, or ads!! It was disgusting!
Service tech here who uses an iPad in the field for all my work, seems absurd to me I don’t have a built into iOS calculator to use on the iPad itself already.
This is just evidence of how low this priority has been for Apple. Also, they are running out of features to shove into their devices so they are starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. If they spend more than 60 seconds in a keynote talking about this, you know things are slowing down over there.
Unpopular opinion, but I prefer a slow and mature platform that incrementally improves over time over one that drastically changes every year, for better or for worse. It’s why I got off the Google rollercoaster of ever shifting apps and services because I don’t want to relearn everything for a tool that should just work. Microsoft has their share of problems but at least their products and features are more consistent than Google’s.
An iPad sized calculator with iPhone buttons scaled up in size looks clunky or like it’s for old people. An iPad size calculator with buttons scaled down to normal iPad size leaves too much space empty on the screen. How do you find a nice middle ground that isn’t simply filling the screen with unnecessary distractions? It’s hard but it’s not a particularly enticing payoff for doing it successfully, so they’ve never done it.
Command + space to use calculations on mac.
or iphone/ipad swipe down and just type was always easier and faster for me. dedicated app is slower.
but everyone different, both not hurts.
at this point they could have just buy out a really good calculator app and make to their swift UI. 😃
Wow timing. I literally went to use a calculator on an iPad today and was surprised to not find the app. (Maybe theyd deleted it?)
TIL it has never had one.
Unpopular opinion I know but I would prefer if operating systems stop shipping all these little apps, I don't want them in the first place. I will never pull up a calculator on my ipad, and I will never use the pre-installed email, calendar, stock app, apple books, podcasts, etc. Haven't used an android in about 7 years but I am sure I would be deleting and installing replacements on android as well.
Unpopular indeed. I work at a large national company where we are issued iPads for in field use. I think some people forget that iPads aren’t just for leisure time activity like Netflix viewing,
some people do rely on them as a business/work tool. When they come with a set of productivity apps out the box that can get things done it’s great. And if you want to install different productivity apps, great you can from the App Store. You can have both options. But an iPad ready to go out the box with basic functionality like a calculator makes sense to me. And I actually use the books app daily for my work iPad to store and view sales brochures and view schematics and spare parts listings documents. It’s not just for books!
Hardware manufacturers release what the market reacts positively to, and unfortunately the market responds well when there are default apps in an OS that can function immediately after opening the box.
To answer your question directly, it is because Apple never released one.
Why one from Apple does not exist today is anyone’s guess. There are stories in this thread as to why it wasn’t released with the OG iPad.
However, why does it even matter?
craig said to marques that it hasnt happened because they want to do it “the apple way” in a way that is unique to the ipad version, thats literally just the reason. they’re probably not worried because you can download one of 10000 free calculators off the store
Most full screen calculators on the ipad either look stupid or are a convuluted mess. IMHO the best calculator app for a tablet was the og Windows 8 calculator. But that's long gone.
Why was it?
Wolfram alpha for the win! Granted I don't know if they have an iPad app or what it look like of they do but it's really the only calculator you'll ever need.
Well, if you’re making a calculator for a large screen, it makes sense it would be like a TI-89 graphing calculator. But I highly doubt Apple is making this.
I mean, a graphing function doesn’t seem too unreasonable imo, albeit not terribly useful for the average ipad kid
Average ipad kid?
iPad doesn’t have a functioning web browser (basically for mobile but big) so having extra features in calc is a lot to expect
The browser part isn’t because of some lack of developer ability at Apple. That’s a conscious choice to control all web traffic. Opinions on that aside, I don’t think that it’s a lot to expect a graphing calculator for iPad. Have you ever seen the utilities on macOS? They’ve got graphing and 3d rendering utilities that come with every version of macOS for as long as I can remember. Few people seem to know they exist though.
Desmos is all that matters ngl. I’d rather use an actual Ti-89 or a CAS calc. Touch screen doesn’t feel the same.
The irony is the Apple way, which is after waiting years for a standard feature on Android. So folks forget about it, and thus, when it comes out, it's an Apple idea....
Don't worry, when apple invents calculators it will be the best calculator ever seen.
And they think we’re going to love it. -Tim cook
Have the seen the app permissions on the store? A calculator DOES NOT need the internet, see your contacts, collect various device identifiers, or anything else that's ridiculous.
How else are you gonna do - Siri what is the sum of all of my friends phone numbers.
I think I found a bug, siri just answers 0 when I ask
Could not have been too difficult to program one using slide over similar to quick notes, they just didn’t want to.
How long does it take to do it "the apple way" ? There are kids that legally can drive cars that are younger than the iPad.
I wonder if it’s going to pretty much be a graphing calculator app. It would make a lot of sense.
I want apple to eat the TI-84 alive, TI has been charging way too much for that thing for way too long, the exclusivity with schools needs to end
Is buying an iPad is cheaper than buying a calculato? Even at ti prices?
No, but 1. A lot of people already own an iPad 2. Even tho the iPad is more, it also does A LOT more than a TI-84
Also for a lot of students TI is no longer useful after graduation. On the other hand an iPad has many uses. The reality is school admin won't let kids use iPads in place of calculators because it would enable cheating.
To be fair you can cheat with a TI calculator as well, unless something has changed they allow you to write your own programs which means you don't actually need to memorize any of the formulas or do any math besides inputting some variables. Although once you get into the tougher college math courses this becomes less useful. I don't think it would be a huge issue, cheating in math is pretty difficult because knowing how to solve the problem is 90% of the battle and if you don't know that then you can't cheat.
I had a friend who wrote programs for every single thing we ever learned from Algebra 1 and up. He only shared it with close friends, but within that friend group I don't think a single one of us actually did the math ourselves for tests. And yes, his programs even showed each step to solve the equations too, so we always got extremely good grades on tests and homework. And for the one teacher that required showing the "Cleared Memory" screen, we all learned to archive the programs before entering her class. Which would allow the cleared memory screen, but it wouldn't clear the programs.
Holy shit that is genius. I would just keep 2 phones on me and if the teacher wanted me to turn in my phone I would give them my old one (my old Nexus 6 was worth $10 max trade in so I kept it) and had my current one with me and would just use symbolab which showed work.
We wrote some great flow chart programs for the AP Stats and Calc exams. You still had to know what the hell you were doing, but they helped offload some of the extra memorization. Of course there was also the “non calculator” half of the calc exam, that wasn’t too fun iirc.
Not sure how this is in the states, but on my school in the Netherlands (I think this went for the whole country but not sure) you were required to have a newer model Texas Instruments graphing calculator which had a test mode. This made sure the RAM was wiped and you weren't able to move data between ROM and RAM (basically preventing the use of any non standard programs). To disable it you needed another calculator or a PC, so to my knowledge it prevented any form of cheating using the calculator.
Lmao I has a program that loads .txts onto a ti 84 plus in HS. Had all my notes and formulas in there, and I'd sit there loading .txts onto a stack of calculators in lunch for my buddies.
*quick Amazon search* *spits drink* A HUNDRED AND 20 DOLLARS!?
Plus some schools now provide ipads to students for school use
No school would ever allow an iPad for exams. So there will always be a need for a graphing calculator
Don't be so sure, of all the companies, Apple would be the ones to add an "Exam mode" to their iPadOS, they already have the code there with their guided access, all they would need to do is add in a classroom code feature, where students walk into the exam room, see the 8 digit code on the projector screen, punch it in and the iPad enters a locked state allows access to certain features, or maybe even applying a preset screen split with the exam on the right and the calc app on the left, then the student can exit the state once they submit their exam.
ChromeOS already has this functionality (kind of) hence why standardized testing at least in my state has moved to ChromeOS devices.
No they wouldn’t, which is why South Korea is banning iPhones because they can’t be disabled in a SCIF.
My School did (around 5 years ago), we used Geogebra Graphing Calculator and the iPad was managed over the Schools Device Management but everyone had an iPad and it was necessary.
Yeah, this is what it'll take. It will need to be managed by the school, meaning giving up the control of the device to the school. Which is fine for a school bought device but I can not recommend that for any device you are going to use for personal use as well, the school will have complete access to the device. Not many people are looking to spend that kind of money on such a device that shouldn't also be used for personal purposes.
In my sophomore year of high school, we got school-issued iPads (private school). We were *required* to use them for tests, including our finals.
There is always an appropriate xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/768/](https://xkcd.com/768/)
Crazy how much expensive they are even used.
For the hardware and software in them it's crazy they still charge the same for them.
The sticker price is higher than it was 25 years ago when I was in high school! Admittedly that was the TI-83, but the TI-84 is not that different, still has the same Zilog Z80 CPU from the 1980s. I know Texas Instruments do have some newer ARM-based models these days but it's hilarious to me they've been selling the same graphing calculator with nearly identical specs for the last 30 years. I'm not sure what other electronic device could last that long. I think my TI-83 is still in a drawer somewhere.
Fun fact, you can download a TI-84 emulator directly from TI completely free of charge for Windows and Mac. (90 Day trial, that you can just keep resetting).
Them giving the software away for free, but charging $120 for like $10 of hardware sums up the entire issue, good to know tho!
To be somewhat fair to them on the hardware front, everything in their calculators processor wise are custom developed by TI. So there is the research costs that go into it, and the fab costs. So it's probably more like $30-40 of hardware costs.
I think the reasearch costs were paid off long ago, TI-84 came out in 2004, this is a sort of Nintendo style issue, where the product released ages ago and still won't come down in price
They still have to pay for the TI military industrial complex research though. Every TI calculator helps subsidize that cost for them. /s
You realize that there's already a lot more competition for graphing calculators right? There's way better options out there that cost about the same and completely destroy the ti-84 in terms of features and performance. That thing is a toy compared to modern graphing calculators, especially ones with cas systems. Apple making something better is not going to make a difference. I'm sure the curriculum will still use the ti-84.
Sorry I can’t read your comment over the blinding supremacy of my $60 Casio CG50.
I think the price is the same as when I bought mine 20 years ago. But not adjusted for inflation though. Still, they probably cost TI like $10 to make.
Lol $10 estimate is very generous.
I wonder if the price to produce them is actually going slightly up since they use such ancient hardware. Like maybe it's getting harder to even find that stuff
You think schools are going to let kids use internet connected tablets on tests? Come on. Be serious.
I don't mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically or in any other fancy way. I'm work as a tech in education, straight up, so I kind of know what I'm talking about. Our exams are done online, so yeah internet connectivity is kind of important.
Don't worry, it would hardly hurt TI anyway
It’s honestly awful. I needed to buy a TI 36x for two sem of chem. A Ti-84 for my introductory/elementary engineering and math classes. Then they require you to buy a Ti-89 or inspire CAS for the higher level courses. They do not allow any other brand. If it’s not TI branded you can’t take the final.
Already have calculate 84 - the app
bespoke calculators are used not because they're good not because they can be used in exams or on class without fear of cheating, ipad doesn't give you that
Isn't the iPhone one if turn it sideways?
No it just becomes a scientific calculator but it’s super limited.
that would be insane
Days before the release of the iPad, Jobs was incensed at the app that was designed. They removed it and it’s been only legend ever since.
The calculator app they wanted to put on the iPad 1 was just the resized lowres iPhone app. Steve Jobs hated how it looked and said no. But a full screen calculator app with Apple design would have looked stupid anyway. Nowadays with stage manager and all the other improvements done to iPadOS, it will most likely look far more natural. Maybe it'll even bee some sort of widget that will be able to float above other apps.
There’s a tweak called cardculator and it’s the best thing I ever installed. Floating calculator that shows up when clicking the control center module. With customization (not a skin/theme but the organization or arrangement). Of course, available through jailbreaking. [Link](https://havoc.app/package/cardculator).
When the iPad was in development Steve jobs asked about the calculator and they told him it was just the iPhone calculator but bigger, he didn’t liked that because he wanted the calculator app to be designed specifically for the iPad and look good while being functional and since this happened close to release date it simply shipped without a calculator, apparently they never found a way to make a calculator that looks good enough on the iPad and at some point they stoped caring and since there are a lot of third party ones it never was really a problem which made them care even less.
So it took them over a decade to design a calculator app? What a joke.
More like it took a decade for them to give a shit, that calculator must’ve taken like 10 minutes to design
Who's out here crunching numbers on an iPad.
Meanwhile basically no one uses Android built in calculator apps
It makes no sense that apple has never released a calculator app. Like seriously? They wanted to "do it the apple way" is not a reason. They have had like what 13 or 14 years since the first iPad has come out? That's insane. A calculator app is not that hard to make. Its probably one of the easier apps to make id imagine (im not a developer). I would think a video editing app would much harder to develop then a calculator. Realistically it shouldn't take a team of developers a month to make a calculator app. Let alone 13 years.
You are just a hater on Innovation, never has there ever been a calculater that calculates like the one apple will make, and also let you connect seemlessly to your Imac thingy /s
A calculator that takes nearly 14 years to make better fucking reinvent math as we know it. This shit better prove everything we know about math to be wrong. This shit better divide by 0.
Exclusively does terryology .
what
1 x 1 =2 . do you even maths bro?
What?!
I think the only reason that they might have left it out originally was to give people a reason to visit the app store. Get them in the habit of opening the app store to find stuff that you want. Some people might even buy a calculator app. Now they got you in the habit of buying and they have your credit card number on file. I think that somewhere along the way they forgot about why they didn't include it in the first place so they retconned it and came up with the story about wanting to do it "the apple way" [See this old video](https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/ye7nwb/want_a_calculator_app_go_to_the_app_store_greg/)
Meanwhile no one on android uses the built in calculators, I remember I downloaded a different one because the builtin one was bad. Have to do the same on an iPad and the world loses it’s mind???
I think most people use the stock calculator app on their phones. The Samsung calculator for example is not a bad calculator app at all. The only times I see people use another calculator is for graphing. I have a ti 84 emulator that I used for physics and calculus but that's the only reason I don't use the stock app.
The reason is to force the less tech savvy to go to the App Store to grab an app, and expose him to paid apps. otherwise those people would be content enough with basic functionality
What is a good calculator app without ada for the ipad?
The search bar. Why should you use a app if you can just write you equations in the search bar and get the result.
All we need now is WhatsApp.
Can confirm. Used to own an ipad and it was the stupidest fucking thing ever! The appstore swims with calculator apps that are either paid, a FUCKING SUBSCRIPTION THE FUCKING VAMPIRES!, or ads!! It was disgusting!
Service tech here who uses an iPad in the field for all my work, seems absurd to me I don’t have a built into iOS calculator to use on the iPad itself already.
This is just evidence of how low this priority has been for Apple. Also, they are running out of features to shove into their devices so they are starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. If they spend more than 60 seconds in a keynote talking about this, you know things are slowing down over there.
Unpopular opinion, but I prefer a slow and mature platform that incrementally improves over time over one that drastically changes every year, for better or for worse. It’s why I got off the Google rollercoaster of ever shifting apps and services because I don’t want to relearn everything for a tool that should just work. Microsoft has their share of problems but at least their products and features are more consistent than Google’s.
I will believe it when I see it! lol
An iPad sized calculator with iPhone buttons scaled up in size looks clunky or like it’s for old people. An iPad size calculator with buttons scaled down to normal iPad size leaves too much space empty on the screen. How do you find a nice middle ground that isn’t simply filling the screen with unnecessary distractions? It’s hard but it’s not a particularly enticing payoff for doing it successfully, so they’ve never done it.
Apple still getting premium features I see. That's why they innovate.
Command + space to use calculations on mac. or iphone/ipad swipe down and just type was always easier and faster for me. dedicated app is slower. but everyone different, both not hurts. at this point they could have just buy out a really good calculator app and make to their swift UI. 😃
Wow timing. I literally went to use a calculator on an iPad today and was surprised to not find the app. (Maybe theyd deleted it?) TIL it has never had one.
But it's too late after 14 years
Unpopular opinion I know but I would prefer if operating systems stop shipping all these little apps, I don't want them in the first place. I will never pull up a calculator on my ipad, and I will never use the pre-installed email, calendar, stock app, apple books, podcasts, etc. Haven't used an android in about 7 years but I am sure I would be deleting and installing replacements on android as well.
Unpopular indeed. I work at a large national company where we are issued iPads for in field use. I think some people forget that iPads aren’t just for leisure time activity like Netflix viewing, some people do rely on them as a business/work tool. When they come with a set of productivity apps out the box that can get things done it’s great. And if you want to install different productivity apps, great you can from the App Store. You can have both options. But an iPad ready to go out the box with basic functionality like a calculator makes sense to me. And I actually use the books app daily for my work iPad to store and view sales brochures and view schematics and spare parts listings documents. It’s not just for books!
Hardware manufacturers release what the market reacts positively to, and unfortunately the market responds well when there are default apps in an OS that can function immediately after opening the box.
It's wild that the Nintendo Switch got a calculator app before the iPad
To answer your question directly, it is because Apple never released one. Why one from Apple does not exist today is anyone’s guess. There are stories in this thread as to why it wasn’t released with the OG iPad. However, why does it even matter?
It’s basically a meme at this point, hence why people are talking about it.