Apple Adding Late 2012 iMacs to Vintage and Obsolete Products Pilot Program at End of January

[MacRumors]

In an internal memo distributed to Apple Authorized Service Providers, obtained by MacRumors, Apple has indicated that Late 2012 model 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs will be added to its vintage and obsolete products list on January 30.

Vintage and obsolete products are typically no longer eligible for repairs or replacement parts from Apple or Apple Authorized Service Providers, but the memo states Late 2012 model iMacs will be eligible for Apple's pilot program that will permit extended service through January 30, 2021 worldwide, subject to parts availability.

Other products in the pilot program include the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Mid 2012 models of the MacBook Air and Mac Pro, and Mid 2012 to Early 2013 models of the MacBook Pro. The program began in January 2018 and was expanded in August.

Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than five years, according to Apple.

Article Link: Apple Adding Late 2012 iMacs to Vintage and Obsolete Products Pilot Program at End of January

 

[2ilent8cho]

Well thats 2 of my devices going Vintage this year then. Shame they will not be offically supported hardware wise still for repair as they both don't miss a beat and perform as good as the day i bought them.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

2012 iMac was the worst Apple computer I have ever used. The hard drive was so slow to the point of being unusable. Being a university computer I couldn't rip it open and put in an SSD as much as I dearly wanted too. So slow and crappy it took 2-5min to load MS office. I just defaulted to my MBP. It became a paper weight on my desk. I dont know what they were thinking still shipping with 5600 rpm hard drives. Such a bottle neck.

 

[iapplelove]

I think my classic 2012 MBP is going to see its last OS update

 

[Mr. Dee]

I think 7 years is a good run on hardware these days and we all know, even when Apple stops supporting it, still last a long time in working condition and will likely still get macOS updates up to 2021. I have a PowerBook G4 from 2001 I bought off eBay and was impressed how well the previous owner took care of it. We are talking about and almost 20 year old laptop.

 

[rotax]

Had the fusion drive, performed great. Replaced it once.

So does this mean no more OS X updates as well, or only no hardware support?

 

[Kanyay]

does this mean im legally required to throw mine and kims away?

 

[jljue]

Having had the Fusion HDD replaced with a 1TB SSD to use with the stock 128GB SSD and 24GB RAM, my Core i7 27" Late 2012 iMac has been quite good. Mine will likely replace my 2nd Gen Core i5 Linux Box that I use as a virtualization server in the next year or two when I get another iMac. I'm sure that it still have a few good years left for virtualization of lightly used Linux VM's and home dashboard.

 

[BigBoy2018]

2012 iMac was the worst Apple computer I have ever used. The hard drive was so slow to the point of being unusable. Being a university computer I couldn't rip it open and put in an SSD as much as I dearly wanted too. So slow and crappy it took 2-5min to load MS office. I just defaulted to my MBP. It became a paper weight on my desk. I dont know what they were thinking still shipping with 5600 rpm hard drives. Such a bottle neck.

You can totally open those up. Just go to iFixit. I've replaced the spinning drives in 4 different 'thin' iMacs, both 21.5 and 27 inch.

Cutting the seal is not too hard, then there's only two connectors between the screen and the board. Once the screen is off, replacing the hard drive is simple. Then with replacement adhesive strips, which also are not to hard to put on, reconnect the screen, get it lined up right, and boom you're done.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2544+Hard+Drive+Replacement/16729

 

[Porco]

Hmm... the vintage status for the last 5,1 (cheesegrater) Mac Pro is the real story here as far as I'm concerned (or was that already on the list?). iMac users have had a multitude of choices since 2012. Hope that new Mac Pro is on the way soon...

 

[marzer]

My 2012 iMac is the best Mac I ever owned. Core i7, Fusion drive, GTX 680MX GPU which is still a good performing graphic card today (probably the best GPU ever put in an iMac). My 2017 iMac with the Radeon 580 Pro doesn’t feel as smooth, wasn’t a huge leap in performance given the 5 year difference, but my son won’t trade with me, he prefers the 2012’s Nvidia card for gaming.

 

[velocityg4]

2012 iMac was the worst Apple computer I have ever used. The hard drive was so slow to the point of being unusable. Being a university computer I couldn't rip it open and put in an SSD as much as I dearly wanted too. So slow and crappy it took 2-5min to load MS office. I just defaulted to my MBP. It became a paper weight on my desk. I dont know what they were thinking still shipping with 5600 rpm hard drives. Such a bottle neck.

An external SSD would do wonders for it. Transcend makes a Thunderbolt 1/2 model if I recall correctly. That way there is no need to open it.

 

[first-to-tea]

This should be illegal. Products should be supported for repair up to 10 years, no less. 7 years is simply unacceptable. This especially is important since Apple suggests its business is “environmental”. More repairs will ensure a more sustainable outcome for the environment.

 

[Brian Y]

Yet on our Dell laptops at work we can buy 5 years of ProSupport, and our account manager is normally happy to extend that for a further 2 if we need to.

I really don't understand why they have this 5 year cut off.

 

[varsity]

2012 iMac was the worst Apple computer I have ever used. The hard drive was so slow to the point of being unusable. Being a university computer I couldn't rip it open and put in an SSD as much as I dearly wanted too. So slow and crappy it took 2-5min to load MS office. I just defaulted to my MBP. It became a paper weight on my desk. I dont know what they were thinking still shipping with 5600 rpm hard drives. Such a bottle neck.

As a Mac repair technician (not at all affiliated with Apple) the 2010-2012 iMac or Macbook with an SSD is an amazing upgrade. If you still have it I would recommend you pop one in. You should rally consider this as we do these all the time for our customers with amazing results. As for Apple moving to put these iMacs in a vintage status this is ridiculous and just a move to boost their profits by selling new and not repairing good machines. Terrible for the environment and harmful to independent small business.

 

[Kanyay]

This should be illegal. Products should be supported for repair up to 10 years, no less. 7 years is simply unacceptable. This especially is important since Apple suggests its business is “environmental”. More repairs will ensure a more sustainable outcome for the environment.

apple is a private company, not government. they dont have to do anything for consumers.

apple is notorious for having really long product support. theyre fine.

 

[Tygernoot]

I dont know what they were thinking still shipping with 5600 rpm hard drives. Such a bottle neck.

Luckily 7 years on that is no longer the case. Oh wait...

 

[wyarp]

Shame they can't actually be bothered to UPDATE them with reasonably priced alternatives then really!

 

[newyorksole]

Damn I was hoping this would be an article announcing new redesigned iMacs Lol.

Ughhh I’m so ready to replace my Mid-2010!

I’m in desperate need to get up to speed.

 

[BreuerEditor]

Shame...I guess I have to upgrade my late 2012 27" to an iMac Pro then. Until I have $5k to drop this will have to do. My drive was starting to fail last year (SMART status was dropping) so I opened it up (for the first time ever...) and replaced the drive with a Samsung 860 Pro SSD. I now have read/write of 500MB/s compared to the Fusion drive setup which maxed out around 250MB/s. 16GB of RAM and the 2GB vRAM GPU. Editing 4K footage is still pretty smooth except when viewing in full resolution. Half-res in Premiere Pro works totally fine.

 

[cere]

Guess that means my “Late 2013 27-inch iMac” that I bought in 2015 might be vintage next year...

Hope not. 5 years from would seem a short span to be on the vintage list.

 

[jdclifford]

2012 iMac was the worst Apple computer I have ever used. The hard drive was so slow to the point of being unusable. Being a university computer I couldn't rip it open and put in an SSD as much as I dearly wanted too. So slow and crappy it took 2-5min to load MS office. I just defaulted to my MBP. It became a paper weight on my desk. I dont know what they were thinking still shipping with 5600 rpm hard drives. Such a bottle neck.

I added an external Samsung 500G SSD T5 to my iMac about a year or so ago and created my own "Fusion" drive. I use the SSD for the Mac OS and use the internal HD for everything else. Speed increase was noticeable.

 

[KazKam]

I'm on one of those late 2012 27" bad boys as I type this. It's dutifully and capably been my primary work machine for the past five years, along with a gorgeous 27" Thunderbolt display, and it's still going strong! I future proofed it a bit with 32GB RAM, but I fully expect it to last three more years easy. Great machine.

I also have one of the 27" mid-2010 iMacs at home. It isn't my primary machine anymore, but it's still doing great as my living room machine with an SSD upgrade... those had the magnetic screen attachment, relatively easy to take apart and upgrade.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

As a Mac repair technician (not at all affiliated with Apple) the 2010-2012 iMac or Macbook with an SSD is an amazing upgrade. If you still have it I would recommend you pop one in. You should rally consider this as we do these all the time for our customers with amazing results. As for Apple moving to put these iMacs in a vintage status this is ridiculous and just a move to boost their profits by selling new and not repairing good machines. Terrible for the environment and harmful to independent small business.

Sadly was due to Univeristy licensing it was out of my hands and I have since moved universities. If I wanted to put one in, they wanted to charge my full price for an Apple branded SSD and we all know how expensive they were back then. At the end of life I offered to buy it off them, install the SSD and bring it to work, but that would have broken the IT user agreement rules for the university. Trust me Universities are their own worst enemies. If you are in a university its ALWASY better to ask for forgiveness than permission these days. It's a bureaucratic nightmare. But I digress.

You are right on SSDs giving computers new life. My parents 2010 MacMini had its hard drive fail recently, I put an SSD in there and its like a new computer half its age. We got that mini for $499. No way we were going to buy $1299 for the new one. But a $100 SSD saved the day. Should get another 5 years of usability out of that easy!

 

[B4U]

apple is a private company, not government. they dont have to do anything for consumers.

apple is notorious for having really long product support. theyre fine.

What does that even mean?
A private company is still legally required to follow the law.
If there is a law that would require companies to support their products for 10 years, then they are legally required to do so.
What we are suggesting is that we need such law to exist.