JDW, be that as it may, I think we tend to lose a little perspective around here, due to our nostalgic love for these little B&W compacts.
I was around then, and 9" B&W monitors were the last thing serious computer users wanted in late 1991. Huge 15" color monitors were in! NuBus slots were the craze! 68040 processors were the must have! And Apple saw it coming.
There's a reason there was never a 68040 compact. Too expensive a technology for bottom line Sculley vs. how much they could charge for it. By 1991, even the consumer saw B&W as old news, which is what spurred the Color Classic. But in 1992, even before it was released, Scully saw the CC prototype and declared the screen was too small to use! So he demanded a larger version immediately, and as soon as they rushed the hideous LC 520 to market in a case IDG had already panned, they canned the CC, as the 520 was far more successful. But the Classic II and CC still had crippled 68030s, and it took the LCs a year to finally get a 68040 – forcing a clearly defined consumer vs. professional price point. Afterall the Classic was discontinued a year before the CC II which became the new entry level model, despite being leaps and bounds superior to the 68000 Classic. Maybe the SE/30 could have sold to 1993, until the Color Classic came out, but that's not where computers were headed. The early 90s were about bigger, better, faster, or at the other extreme: smaller, lighter, more portable – and that's where the money was. I doubt the SE would have lasted another year at the price-point and volume it enjoyed between 89 and 91 (and for the record, January 89 to October 91 is a damn long time in the lifespan of any computer model). The SE/30 was the last of the classic compact design, and the cost to update it for the amount of money they could have charged based on demand was simply prohibitive. So Apple wisely targeted the 9" compact to schools, students and entry level computer users – how could they possibly then charge several thousand more for the same package, regardless of how powerful it was? Apple wanted to sell more expensive CPUs, and more expensive color monitors, because that's where the demand was. Moreover, by 1991, even high school kids were starting to get credit cards, and parents were starting to deficit spend us into the current financial dilemma the world finds itself in today. Apple could finally sell computers directly to kids, who were rapidly defining the market for what a consumer entry-level computer needed to be, which was color and CD-ROM.
The SE/30 had a solid almost 3 year run. But let's be real ... sure Sculley likely quashed the more powerful successor to the SE/30 based on the bottom line, but seriously, its days were numbered. Screaming fast 9" B&W monitors were simply not something people were willing to pay a premium for anymore – and don't forget Apple was also competing with Microsoft and and explosion of cheap PCs most of which came standard with color monitors in 1991. Heck even my secretary had a 15" color monitor in 1991. All romanticism aside, the compact Mac was on the way out. By the time the SE/30 was discontinued, the Qudra was already the new king of the mountain, and a person could get a deal on a screamin' IIfx or IIsi instead for the same money as an SE – with a color monitor.
As for Jobs concern for the bottom line, he may be more flexible than Sculley on that point, but he would not be pursuing the NetBook market so aggressively with the iPad if he didn't smell money, despite his previous opinion on the subject.
I was around then, and 9" B&W monitors were the last thing serious computer users wanted in late 1991. Huge 15" color monitors were in! NuBus slots were the craze! 68040 processors were the must have! And Apple saw it coming.
There's a reason there was never a 68040 compact. Too expensive a technology for bottom line Sculley vs. how much they could charge for it. By 1991, even the consumer saw B&W as old news, which is what spurred the Color Classic. But in 1992, even before it was released, Scully saw the CC prototype and declared the screen was too small to use! So he demanded a larger version immediately, and as soon as they rushed the hideous LC 520 to market in a case IDG had already panned, they canned the CC, as the 520 was far more successful. But the Classic II and CC still had crippled 68030s, and it took the LCs a year to finally get a 68040 – forcing a clearly defined consumer vs. professional price point. Afterall the Classic was discontinued a year before the CC II which became the new entry level model, despite being leaps and bounds superior to the 68000 Classic. Maybe the SE/30 could have sold to 1993, until the Color Classic came out, but that's not where computers were headed. The early 90s were about bigger, better, faster, or at the other extreme: smaller, lighter, more portable – and that's where the money was. I doubt the SE would have lasted another year at the price-point and volume it enjoyed between 89 and 91 (and for the record, January 89 to October 91 is a damn long time in the lifespan of any computer model). The SE/30 was the last of the classic compact design, and the cost to update it for the amount of money they could have charged based on demand was simply prohibitive. So Apple wisely targeted the 9" compact to schools, students and entry level computer users – how could they possibly then charge several thousand more for the same package, regardless of how powerful it was? Apple wanted to sell more expensive CPUs, and more expensive color monitors, because that's where the demand was. Moreover, by 1991, even high school kids were starting to get credit cards, and parents were starting to deficit spend us into the current financial dilemma the world finds itself in today. Apple could finally sell computers directly to kids, who were rapidly defining the market for what a consumer entry-level computer needed to be, which was color and CD-ROM.
The SE/30 had a solid almost 3 year run. But let's be real ... sure Sculley likely quashed the more powerful successor to the SE/30 based on the bottom line, but seriously, its days were numbered. Screaming fast 9" B&W monitors were simply not something people were willing to pay a premium for anymore – and don't forget Apple was also competing with Microsoft and and explosion of cheap PCs most of which came standard with color monitors in 1991. Heck even my secretary had a 15" color monitor in 1991. All romanticism aside, the compact Mac was on the way out. By the time the SE/30 was discontinued, the Qudra was already the new king of the mountain, and a person could get a deal on a screamin' IIfx or IIsi instead for the same money as an SE – with a color monitor.
As for Jobs concern for the bottom line, he may be more flexible than Sculley on that point, but he would not be pursuing the NetBook market so aggressively with the iPad if he didn't smell money, despite his previous opinion on the subject.