HP-29C: 98 Program Steps, So, why not an even 100?

[Thomas Okken]

They probably also wanted to avoid having the 19C/29C cannibalize sales of the 67/97. In terms of storage capacity they were pretty close, with 44 registers for the 19C/29C and 58 registers for the 67/97 (counting 7 program lines as 1 register), so keeping the number of program lines in the former at "only" 98 positioned them as less powerful, lower-cost models, while still a big step up from the 25. N.B. I don't have any inside information on this, I'm just thinking out loud, but it would account for the weirdly large number of data registers in the 19C/29C, even more than in the 67/97.