Apple updated its vintage and obsolete products list to add several Macs, iPads, accessories, and more. The 2013 “Trash Can” Mac Pro was added to the vintage list, 12 years after it was first introduced.
Most products are added to the vintage list much earlier, but Apple sold the 2013 Mac Pro for so long that it wasn’t eligible until now. A device is considered “vintage” five years after it was last distributed for sale.
The trash can Mac Pro wasn’t discontinued until December 2019, when the redesigned “Cheese Grater” Mac Pro came out. The 2013 Mac Pro was the subject of Phil Schiller’s infamous “Can’t innovate anymore, my ass,” line, which backfired spectacularly when the Mac Pro’s design turned out to be unsustainable.
The Mac Pro featured a radical new cylindrical design that was much smaller than the previous-generation Mac Pro, but it didn’t end up meeting the needs of pro users. There wasn’t space to upgrade internal components like GPUs, which proved to be a major downfall as GPUs expanded in size, power, and thermal requirements. Apple wasn’t able to introduce a new version of the Mac Pro due to design limitations, and in 2017, Apple admitted that it had failed with the 2013 Mac Pro. “I think we designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner,” Apple hardware chief Craig Federighi said at the time.
Along with the 2013 Mac Pro, Apple also added the 2019 13-inch MacBook Air, 2019 iMac, 2018 11-inch iPad Pro, and 2018 third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro to its vintage products list. The 128GB iPhone 8 also joins the 64GB and 256GB iPhone 8 models on the vintage list. The 64GB and 256GB models were added earlier this year, but the 128GB iPhone 8 was sold for a longer period of time.
Several devices were also transitioned from the vintage products list to the obsolete products list. The second-generation AirPort Express, 2TB and 3TB AirPort Time Capsules, and 802.11ac AirPort Extreme are now considered obsolete.
Devices are moved from the vintage list to the obsolete list after a two-year period. Apple products are typically considered technologically obsolete seven years after they were last available for sale.
For vintage products, Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) are still able to offer repairs if the required parts are available. If parts can’t be obtained, Apple isn’t able to do repairs.
Products that are obsolete are not repaired by Apple Stores or AASPs and Apple does not provide parts. Some Mac laptops are eligible for a battery-only repair period of up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed from sale, though this is subject to parts availability.
