What's the difference between vintage and obsolete Apple hardware outside of France?

I read article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 and it's not clear what vintage means.


So what does it mean? Being that I live in the U.S. and have a "vintage" mac, can I get hardware support or not? And if not, what happens at 7 years when it becomes obsolete?


So we've got three periods:

  1. Less than 5 years old.
  2. Vintage: between 5 and 7 years old
  3. Obsolete: more than 7 years old


What distinguishes them?



Posted on Nov 22, 2021 12:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 22, 2021 11:49 AM

betaneptune wrote:

The what's the difference between 5-7 years and 7+ years?
  1. Before 5 yrs both Apple Retail Stores and AASPs will work on products
  2. from 5-7 yrs, only AASPs will work on them
  3. 7+ yrs no one will work on them.
23 replies

Nov 22, 2021 10:19 AM in response to dialabrain

dialabrain wrote:


pokey b wrote:

You can always get repairs on a 5+ years old Mac at an Apple Approved Service Provider. To find one you can start at this page.
No…
"Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, with the sole exception of Mac notebooks that are eligible for an additional battery-only repair period. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products.

The what's the difference between 5-7 years and 7+ years?

Nov 22, 2021 8:51 AM in response to pokey b

pokey b wrote:

You can always get repairs on a 5+ years old Mac at an Apple Approved Service Provider. To find one you can start at this page.

No…

"Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, with the sole exception of Mac notebooks that are eligible for an additional battery-only repair period. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products.

Nov 22, 2021 2:54 AM in response to Rudegar

Rudegar wrote:

Vintage and obsolete Apple products on MacRumors

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

What Happens When Your Apple Products Become 'Vintage' or 'Obsolete?' (lifehacker.com)

How Apple Decides Which Products Are ‘Vintage’ and ‘Obsolete’ | by Maddie Stone | OneZero (medium.com)

Here's What Apple Actually Means by 'Vintage' and 'Obsolete' Products (idropnews.com)

more
apple Vintage vs. Obsolete - Google-


Thanks!


I was reading the Apple support article and it suggested I go to this site. Short-circuited my brain going to Google. Also I bet I get more reliable answers here!


Ah, so vintage means iffy repair and obsolete means bye-bye.


The second one listed is the one from Apple I already read and was the impetus of this question.


Wow. I have a 16-year-old car and can still get it repaired. But a 5-year-old Mac?


Tech tip: Bring up the dock. Use the L/R arrow keys to select an icon. Hold down the Opt key and use the L/R arrow keys to move the icon among the other icons, putting it in a new place!


Another tech tip: In the Finder, use Opt-Up-arrow and Opt-Down-arrow to go to the top or bottom of a list in list view, respectively. This also works on other lists like menus, mail list, and more. For some lists you can type the first few chars to go to the item you want. (Sometimes you first have to click somewhere in the list to move the keyboard focus to it.)


Nov 22, 2021 10:22 AM in response to hcsitas

hcsitas wrote:

What year and model?

Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014


Hardware wise it seems to be working fine now except that I think it needs a good dusting inside, as the fan(s) come on more often than before. But I don't want to buy a new one yet. I still need to finish converting my videos in JPEG-A and other formats that won't work past Mojave. So this is for planning purposes.

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What's the difference between vintage and obsolete Apple hardware outside of France?

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