Q: Today I have learned from an apple store that my macbook pro (bought in 2007) is a vintage good according to "Apple"'s definition, ... more
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Aug 15, 2014 2:16 PMby The hatter,You should have run across the rule of thumb that 5 years has generally been the length of OS support, though even now my 8 year old MAC PRO (not laptop, that forum is elsewhere) 10.6.8 is still supported and does everything almost I could need.
So 7 years in LAPTOP YEARS is much longer - I can stuff RAM, SSDs, new GPUs and even processor into my vintage Mac. Laptops are outgrown faster, parts fail faster, and as for components, there are DIY as far as some items go from vendors to replace and upgrade RAM and storage but not the nuts and bolt motherboard. Then again, a new MacBook Air would be affordable and run rings around MacBook Pro of 2007 too.
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by Grant Bennet-Alder,Aug 15, 2014 2:33 PM
Grant Bennet-Alder
Aug 15, 2014 2:33 PM
in response to mere_apple_user
Level 9
(61,083 points)
DesktopsThere is nothing stopping you from obtaining third-party service. There are now enough of your model that have died, due to different causes (and had a variety of components die) that good used parts are plentiful and fairly cheap. Owning a good used Mac is not a bad thing -- you can keep it going as long as it continues to meet your needs, and in most cases, for less money for repairs than a newer one.
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Aug 15, 2014 4:09 PMby Klaus1,mere_apple_user wrote:
They should print their definition of vintage/obsolete products in any purchasing agreement of their products, so that consumers can be aware that a doom day for their products is coming.
They do.
Vintage and obsolete Apple products:
Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. These include ALL G4 and G5 models.
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Aug 21, 2014 2:36 PMby mere_apple_user,Actually I bought my Macbook pro in 2008 (although it does make little difference), which was a brand-new product (costed more than 2200USD) at that time. Somehow my machine was discontinued in 2009 and became a vintage good this year according to Apple's policy (they classify Apple products as vintage goods after 5 years of discontinuing products). Nobody would expect a brand-new product to be discontinued in the following year with normal sense.
There are several issues I have on how Apple inc currently handles their old products:
1. There is no way consumers can learn whether their products are discontinued unless they actually visit an Apple store.
2. Even though Apple has all information on consumers' purchasing histories (via registration of purchase), they never notify their decisions of discontinuing certain products to consumers. This is clearly neglecting their duties.
2. Specific to MacBook Pro, Apple still uses the same product names (not like iPad 2 or 3 ...), so technically speaking, MacBook Pro is not discontinued.
3. Discontinuing products are introduced only for Apple's benefits not for consumers (e.g. in California they still provide services to vintage goods because CA state imposes stricter rules on protecting consumers' rights).
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Aug 21, 2014 2:54 PMby notcloudy,Apple needs to get into the 21st century --- same as radio and television - there is a point where upgrading because its NEWW OOOOOH is a waste of money - particularly when what you have works - and you haven't really had time to learn all of it.
Only reason for what they are doing is to please wall street - maybe buy back all their stock and please their customers instead.
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Aug 21, 2014 4:15 PMby Grant Bennet-Alder,Conspiracy theories are more fun, this one is not supported by the facts.
Since 1984, models of Apple computers have only rarely been available for more than a year before being superseded by a better model. If sales then fall off for the older model, as is usually the case, the older model is discontinued.
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Aug 22, 2014 6:33 AMby notcloudy,Personnel Computers in the 1980's were the equivalent of TV's in the 1950's and Radio in the 1920's where the owners also were building or fixing them themselves. Radio - crystal kits, TV - bring the vacuum tubes to the store for testing. PC's build your own, small memory, no hard disk in some cases, more a tech toy than anything.
Todays PC's and Mac's have multiple applications other than video streaming, net surfing, and game playing, that cause the serious user to make an investment in hardware and software- and do not expect to have to keep making that investment on the whim of the company.
Net security companies - that have a yearly fee for updates have the correct idea.
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Aug 23, 2014 6:19 AMby notcloudy,Yes we all do - Problems with not backward compatible started to show up in Windows in the 1990's when companies had to load info created in DOS version of software only to discover it did not load unless you loaded it onto Windows 3.1 and saved it in that format. So your saying that families who don't print out their photographs can forget about them if they can't load them later.
You really need to get out of fantasy land - there are individuals who are not addicted to gaming, web surfing, texting, etc and do not want to have their work saved in the CLOUD.
If you follow the news by the way, Wall Street was dropping the price per share on Apple stock because no new toys out, until Wal-Mart sort of leaked the fact that a new IPHONE is coming out by reducing the price on the current model. It not a conspiracy - its just that Wall street wants perpetual growth rather than sustainability of profit and company size.
