Did you know that Apple only services Macs, iPhones, iPad and iPod for 5 years? Apple uses the term vintage to describe products that have been discontinued for more than 5 years. An Apple support article states that “Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than five years and less than seven years ago.” Once they hit the 7-year mark Apple refers to the product as obsolete.

It is useful to know that Apple only provides parts for Macs for 5 years following their discontinuation since it’ll become tougher to get support and parts for devices older than this. If you visit an Apple Store with a vintage device, you will be politely informed that Apple will not service it.  In the greater Seattle area there are two Apple Authorized service centers  that will work on vintage products as long as they are able to get parts for it. They are:

CityMac, formerly called TD Curran. They have a store in Kirkland.

There are other, non-Apple authorized repair companies in the Seattle area, such as ProgressiveTech.

If you’d like to determine when your Apple product was discontinued, you can look for it on this Wikipedia Timeline of Apple products.