Apple quietly discontinues 15 devices and some are only two years old
The latest wave of Apple discontinuations has been quietly unleashed, cutting support for 15 devices among the tech giant's most popular lines, and it even affects some gadgets that were released as little as two years ago.
Last week was one of the biggest of the year for Apple, as it unveiled many of its biggest products of the year including an updated version of a popular iPhone, more powerful variants of the MacBook and iPad ranges, and even a brand-new budget laptop that's already taken the internet by storm.
It might not match the excitement of a new flagship iPhone reveal, but it's given Apple fans plenty to look forward to and get invested in with many of the announcements already hitting the shelves.
Unfortunately, a consequence of all those new gadgets is that it often coincides with the removal of some old favorites, and Apple has quietly ditched support for a some of its most popular products while nobody was looking.
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As reported by the Daily Mail, there are 15 different items within Apple's past catalog that have now received the dreaded 'discontinued' status, although it's not always as bad as it might sound.
Discontinued usually just means that the item is no longer available for purchase, whereas the most severe 'unsupported' or 'obsolete' status is often linked to the removal of software update support and Apple's refusal to repair any broken items.
It does mean that you'll have to head to the secondhand market if you've had your eyes on one of these gadgets though, as Apple will no longer offer them new through official storefronts going forward.
Here are all of the products that have now been officially discontinued by Apple:
- iPhone 16e
- iPad Air M3 (11-inch)
- iPad Air M3 (13-inch)
- MacBook Air M4 (13-inch)
- MacBook Air M4 (15-inch)
- MacBook Pro M5 (13-inch, 512GB)
- MacBook Pro M4 Pro (14-inch)
- MacBook Pro M4 Pro (16-inch)
- MacBook Pro M4 Max (14-inch)
- MacBook Pro M4 Max (16-inch)
- Mac Studio M3 Ultra (512GB)
- Apple Studio Display (A13 Bionic)
- Apple Pro Display XDR
- Apple Pro Stand
- Apple Pro Display XDR VESA Mount Adapter
Many of these were released as recently as last year, although the Pro Display XDR is the oldest on the list, dating originally all the way back to 2019.
Understandably, almost all of these have now been replaced with an updated version, from the iPhone 17e taking over from the 16e to the newest M5 and M4 versions of MacBooks and iPads.
One of the strangest, however is definitely the M5 MacBook Pro with 512GB of storage, as while there isn't an M6 version to upgrade to, Apple has increased the minimum storage for this model to 1TB, giving people more room to play with as a baseline.
Having one of these products doesn't mean that you suddenly need to upgrade, only that Apple is now pushing people onto the latest and greatest versions that you might want to consider moving up to down the line.