Omron 81

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Most of the major Japanese calculator manufacturers tried to import American components and technologies to develop their new models. Omron achieved this in an unusual way: it initially set up its research and development department in the United States, where they completed the circuit set that was used to built the Omron 800 small desktop calculator in 1971, at a fraction of the price of similar machines up to that time. In the same year, the first pocket calculators built from American components appeared, whose initially high price soon fell even faster than desktop machines, so Omron also tried to make such machines. The rechargeable Omron 802 appeared in 1972, and in 1973 they entered the market with the first disposable battery-powered version, the Omron 81. Its Omron’s developed circuits were now manufactured by the Japanese company Hitachi, and its display was also a domestic vacuum fluorescent tube, so even though it was larger than competing models, all its components could be covered by domestic production. Later, Omron produced more and more high-quality pocket calculators.

OEM versions were also produced, with a different housing for Ricoh (RC-8), and with a landscape design for the West German Triumph-Adler concern (80D).