The prices dropped fairly quickly, within a few years, as they quickly became mass produced.

IIRC, they were very basic, and not very small either.

Remember, I was more of an on-looker.
Calculators were not my thing.
We still have hubby's slide rule, though, which I also know nothing about how it works, or how one uses it.

I'm old enough to remember when the hand-held calculator was new and expensive.

I don't remember the dates - likely sometime in the seventies- when the hand-held calculator's cost was several $100s and was considered state-of-the-art technology.

I'm liberal arts type, but my spouse was an engineer and involved at the beginning of this technology, so I recall his friends proudly displaying their latest work-piece.

It's really something to comprehend how far technology has come in such a relatively short time period.

I'm very interested in this topic, as my adult child's brain was injured by a stroke.

Many areas were affected, especially speech, but also numerancy.
Gradually speech returned, from one-word reponses to four- or more-word sentences.
Then speech declined somewhat, perhaps due to deep-rooted anxiety, loss of adequate sleep, a fall and then a 4-hour bout of seizures.

I continue to follow articles on neuro-plasticity and hope to adopt and use some of the simple brain exercises that can help this adult regain her speaking capacity.