Macintosh SE/30: When was it REALLY discontinued?

[Scott Baret]

I've read a lot of supposedly very reliable sources that say the SE/30 was discontinued in October 1990. However, as a longtimer in the Mac community, I beg to disagree and know for a fact that it was discontinued in October 1991. There were SE/30s in Apple's 1991 advertising (which featured the LC, Classic, and IIsi prominently) and books of the day talked about it as well. Besides, the Classic II replaced it in the lineup and didn't take over a niche that hadn't existed for a year.

Anyone else want to back me up on this?

 

[Metalchic]

the SE/30s at my school most of them said manufactured JAnuary and Feburay 1991

 

[Unknown_K]

Could it be no new orders could be placed after Oct 1990, but machines that were ordered were still made after that date?

SE/30 had FPU and lots of room for RAM compared to the compacts of its time, you could say it was a high end workstation and or server compact and those would be needed at companies who order large quantities at a time.

 

[30pin]

My SE/30 was produced(assembled?) in May of 1991 in Ireland!

 

[stevep]

Both mine are Made in USA (Fremont) week 4 of 1991.

 

[Charlieman]

I have some old Apple Education price lists at work that I don't have at home. The Classic II was introduced in late October 1991, but it was not a functional/direct replacement for the SE/30. I would be unsurprised if the SE/30 remained available after the launch of the Classic II, if only for education and corporate buyers.

Otherwise, I'll shut up until I have checked my archive.

 

[equill]

I've read a lot of supposedly very reliable sources that say the SE/30 was discontinued in October 1990. However, as a longtimer in the Mac community, I beg to disagree ...

Another small straw in the wind is that one of my SE/30s has the serial number E048057M5359X, indicating a build date of (week ending) early December 1990.

de

 

[JDW]

Honestly, that Early Mac Serial Number Decoder needs a built in "week number to month" converter!

Well my SE/30's serial is of little help to this discussion: E0240A6M5390

Built the 24th week of 1990 in Singapore.

 

[equill]

Was that translation of prefix 'E' into Singapore the work of Mac128's software (which seems to be identical in result with pickle's Perl script), or your own research?

TattleTech (v2.84. Version 2.59 for earlier Macs is not so wide-rangeing in detail) decodes 'E' as Elk Grove, CA, and gives a specific date (week ending on). My E95108WM5359X is given as w/e 24/12/1989, and E048057M5359X as w/e 3/12/90. It also accurately defines my 512Ke (F6207FFM0001ED), and gives it as made at Cupertino (Fremont?) in the w/e 21/5/86. I have generally found TattleTech to be reliable in giving a result, and credible in this decoding, but I don't know enough about Apple's manufacturing history to swear by it. Neither of the links given by Mac128 identifies my M5359Xs as SE/30s.

de