The iPhone 4 is one of the most iconic iPhone models ever released. In addition to big features like the Facetime camera and Retina display the device featured a design that shaped the smartphone industry. On top of them all iPhone 4 was the last iPhone ever to be introduced by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself. Now it has been revealed that along with the late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air, third-gen Airport Extreme and mid 2009 AirPort Time Capsule, Apple is putting the smartphone in its list of vintage and obsolete products. The devices will be added to the list on October 31.
The ‘Vintage products’ according to Apple are devices that have not been in production since last 5 years but were in production within last 7 years. The ‘Obsolete products’ are those that were discontinued by the company seven years ago. So by this definition iPhone 4 and MacBook Air 2010 will be going into the vintage list where as other devices mentioned above will become obsolete. Being added in the vintage and obsolete list is kind of a big deal as these products will no longer be eligible for hardware service by Apple apart from a few exceptional cases.
The information was revealed by Mac Otakara, which is a Japanese website. However it is expected that the change will be reflected in other markets too including the US, UK, Australia, Canada and others.
While the iPhone 4 was dropped from the compatibility list when iOS 8 came out, MacBook Air 2010 is still part of macOS Sierra’s compatibility list. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Apple from stopping software updates for that model.