As it does regularly with older products, Apple is about to move a bunch of Macs, iPods, and accessories to obsolete status, meaning the products will no longer be eligible for service or repair support through Apple retail stores or authorized third-party channels. So if you happen to have one of these products and need a hardware repair of some kind, you’ll have until early December to do so at an Apple Store or authorized service provider.
The Macs getting the axe this time around include:
- iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
- iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
- MacBook Air (Mid 2009)
- Mac Pro (Early 2009)
- MacBook (13-inch, early 2008)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, early 2008)
These Macs will move to Obsolete and Vintage status in all regions where applicable. Apple typically begins the process for models 5-7 years after manufacturing has been discontinued and maintains a list on its website here. Vintage status only applies to California and Turkey where the company is required to continue offering support in some cases, but otherwise everything becomes obsolete and will no longer be eligible for hardware repairs.
Other products moving to vintage obsolete status this time around include the iPod touch (1st generation), the Apple Cinema Display (23-inch, DVI early 2007), Time Capsule 802.11n (1st) generation, and for the first time, a long list of Beats products that Apple inherited with its acquisition of Beats Electronics, including:
- iBeats
- Beatbox
- Beatbox Portable (1st generation)
- Wireless (1st generation)
- Diddybeats
- Heartbeats (1st generation)
All of the above obsoleting will go into action on December 8, 2015, as highlighted in the internal memo above.
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Wow, the 1st generation touch looks so short.
The image is a little squished. You can tell that by looking at the icons; they’re not perfectly square.
Wait…. The first-generation iPod touch still hasn’t moved to obsolete status? It’s the same hardware as the original iPhone, which went to obsolete status two years ago, and it hasn’t been supported by new iOS versions or security updates since early 2010….
I do believe it’s because Apple, and other manufactures, are required by law to offer service/support for a product for so many years after it is released (7 years here in california). Since the first iPod touch was released after the first iPhone that’s probably why.
We still have a first-generation iPod Touch here and it’s as good as new: the battery even still holds a good charge after all these years. Still works for email, web browsing, iTunes, etc., although lots of more recent apps don’t work on it, even iBooks can’t be installed. I spent a weekend recently with a guy who’s still using a first-generation iPhone and it too continues to meet his needs and the original battery still works fine.
You have “MacBook Pro (15-inch, early 2009)” in your article text that says “2008” in the memo screenshot.
Wow my upgraded Mac Pro just got obsoleted, while it nevertheless, matches the current 12-core MacPro on multi-processor Geekbench results :), and has a faster solid state disk, and has a faster graphics card :)
The only place it actually falls behind is on single core. True this machine has been maxed out with upgrades, but I think I’ll keep the obsolete machine for a while longer.
and technically apple could repair it since it is pretty much the same as the not-yet obsolete 2010 model. Apple may methodically obsolete machines, but in this case, having the 2009 model obsolete where the, nearly the same, except for firmware update 2010 model not obsolete – doesn’t make too much sense.
There goes support for my Heartbeats…