iMore reports that Apple has decided to discontinue its Wi-Fi router range, including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule.
“We’re discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station products,” Apple told iMore. “They will be available through Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last.”
According to iMore, Apple will also help customers to find service and parts for the currently available AirPort Base Stations for 5 more years. It will also be posting various articles to help customers move on to other products and away from AirPort products.
AirPort was first announced by Steve Jobs at Macworld New York in July 1999, during the very early days of wireless technology. Back then, Apple wanted to provide support for Wi-Fi for all devices, not just for Macs, including routers, in order to help the technology become more mainstream. As Wi-Fi standards progressed, Apple continued to help the technology progress with its own products, including developments such as a built-in audio jack that connected speakers and enabled wireless music streaming that was introduced with the 2004 release of AirPort Express. Time Capsule, which launched in 2008, was another innovation from Apple, featuring a hard drive that combined with the Time Machine OS X facility to enable automatic and seamless wireless backup of a user’s Macs.
Source: RIP AirPort Base Stations: Why Apple is exiting the Wi-Fi router business
