Anyone remember the PowerBook 550c? Probably you don't unless, like me, you've lived in Japan for many years. Apple sold this beefed up variant of the 540c only in Japan. (Bigger 10.4" active matrix screen, full 040 CPU with FPU, black coloration -- a prized 68k notebook, to be sure!) No doubt it would have sold well in other markets too, but they only sold it here. They are still so popular you can hardly find them even on Japanese auction sites!
Now turn back to this 512k/800. It's a 512ke (you can see the 800k drive in one of those photos, and as you can read in the title of the thread linked to), and I will assume it also has the 128k ROMs even though I can't read the chip numbers in those so-tiny-I-could-scream photos. Yes, it has a Plus keyboard. But that's one of the perks for those who lived outside the US at the time.
As with the PB550c, the 512k/800 simply offered something special for Apple's foreign faithful.
As a side note, the 512ke (and its foreign variants) are quite worthless in my book. Why? Because they are nothing more than a Mac Plus with insufficient RAM. I would consider the original Mac 512k to hold more value because of it's 64k ROMs alone, but it also has the original 400k drive too, which I consider to have some value. But even with the older ROMs, you can still add 800k drives to the original 512k. So when I see 512ke's selling on EBAY, I chuckle to myself because many buying those machines actually think they have something special. They do, insofar as "simply owning a 68k Mac" is concerned. But realistically, they would be better off with a Mac Plus. That doesn't hold true for 128k and 512k owners though, as we are not better off with newer ROMs. I like my 64k ROMs and I feel there is more value in them. If you want the most value from a 128k ROM machine, you would go with a full Mac Plus.
Now turn back to this 512k/800. It's a 512ke (you can see the 800k drive in one of those photos, and as you can read in the title of the thread linked to), and I will assume it also has the 128k ROMs even though I can't read the chip numbers in those so-tiny-I-could-scream photos. Yes, it has a Plus keyboard. But that's one of the perks for those who lived outside the US at the time.
As with the PB550c, the 512k/800 simply offered something special for Apple's foreign faithful.
As a side note, the 512ke (and its foreign variants) are quite worthless in my book. Why? Because they are nothing more than a Mac Plus with insufficient RAM. I would consider the original Mac 512k to hold more value because of it's 64k ROMs alone, but it also has the original 400k drive too, which I consider to have some value. But even with the older ROMs, you can still add 800k drives to the original 512k. So when I see 512ke's selling on EBAY, I chuckle to myself because many buying those machines actually think they have something special. They do, insofar as "simply owning a 68k Mac" is concerned. But realistically, they would be better off with a Mac Plus. That doesn't hold true for 128k and 512k owners though, as we are not better off with newer ROMs. I like my 64k ROMs and I feel there is more value in them. If you want the most value from a 128k ROM machine, you would go with a full Mac Plus.