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The first electronic desktop calculator came on the market in 1961. The "Anita" of the English "Bell Punch Company" was equipped with 144 tubes and mastered the four basic arithmetic modes. With 4200-DM cost for one of these machines, they were expensive as a VW Beetle.
1964 appeared the "IME" from Italy, the first desktop computer with transistors. Those were also relatively inexpensive, efficient and less error prone than calculators with tubes. German companies, such as the Olympia-Werke in Wilhelmshaven have been successful with electronic computers. As Sharp sold first computer with integrated circuits (ICs) in 1966, the way followed a path of rapid miniaturization of components in the computer.
Later the first electronic computer in the "pocket" with battery power appeared. The "heart" of the first pocket calculator - the microchip – was produced by U.S. companies like Texas Instruments and Rockwell. Texas Instruments had developed the first prototype of a pocket calculator in 1967 allready. The chip named "Cal Tech" should only demonstrate the performance of new chips. It was never put into production. The enormous sales potential of pocket calculators were not yet recognized, especially since the production was too expensive. For this reason, Texas Instruments sold the technical design of the "Cal Tech" to Canon. It was not until 1972, when Texas Instruments put its own calculator on the market.