Today is all about the switch from one Apple CEO to another, but the company hasn’t yet completed another transition: from Intel to in-house processors in the Mac. While Apple stopped selling Intel-based Macs as long ago as 2023, several models are still eligible for hardware support… although that number just shrank further.
As spotted by MacRumors, two 13-inch MacBook Pro models from 2017 and 2018, respectively, moved from the vintage to the obsolete list yesterday, and were joined there by the 2018 Retina MacBook Air. This isn’t just a question of wording. Owners of vintage products (generally those which were discontinued five to seven years ago) can continue to get those products repaired, subject to parts availability, but obsolete items (discontinued more than seven years ago) get almost no hardware support.
The only exception is the option for a battery-only repair which is available up to 10 years after a product goes off sale. But this only applies to laptops and, again, is subject to parts availability.
Every Intel-based MacBook is now either vintage or obsolete. (The last Intel Air was declared vintage in January.) But a few Intel-based Mac desktops haven’t gotten to that stage yet. The final Intel Mac mini and Mac Pro both persevered until 2023, and are still eligible for full hardware support.
