system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does Texas Instruments (TI) maintain such a monopoly over the graphing calculator market? In other words, why aren't there more competitors to undercut TI on price when so many people find TI calculators overpriced?
gpt
Are they overpriced? The TI-83 was released in 1996 and retailed for about $125, the same today for a TI-84. That same calculator should cost around $200 adjusted for inflation. Texas Instruments has kept the price the same.

Why can't competitors undercut TI? Well, they can try. But starting in the 1980s, Texas Instruments began a truly innovative marketing campaign targeting teachers and schools. Teaching Teaching with Technology educates teachers and administrators using their calculators. This is an in-person workshop and online training. Teachers become comfortable with that piece of tech and are reluctant to use other brands because they are not perfect substitutes.

There is also the problem of who actually uses the product. Parents buy them because they have to. The kids actually use it. If the parent buys a Casio and the kid complains he/she can't follow along in class because the teacher uses a TI-84, who wins?