Apple Ceases Development of 'AirPort' Wireless Routers as Engineers Reassigned to Other Products

[SaxPlayer]

It's just typical modern Apple. They focus their attention on their biggest products and everything else becomes seriously outdated. Any business should concentrate on what generates their revenues - that's completely understandable. However, Apple is one of (if not the) biggest company on the planet with more money in the bank than most countries. They don't really have an excuse. Either keep these products up to date and keep innovating or get rid of them.

With the Airport (like the Mac Pro, Mac Mini etc) Apple seem to move engineers onto other projects and almost forget that they exist. Just use some of those $$$$$$'s to employ some more engineers? There's a thought!

 

[Chancha]

Is there any possibility that the whole AirPort concept would have been baked in the new HomePod?

The HomePod does not even have an ethernet port, that's all you need to know about its networking capabilities. At best it could only act as a WiFi repeater, or a mesh node, and probably suck at it due to priorities of speaker location / acoustics / aesthetics above radio performance.

 

[Jim L]

The HomePod does not even have an ethernet port, that's all you need to know about its networking capabilities. At best it could only act as a WiFi repeater, or a mesh node, and probably suck at it due to priorities of speaker location / acoustics / aesthetics above radio performance.

Good point and another evidence of where Apple is headed.

Although Apple may not have specifically said they are exiting the wifi router market, the fact that they have not updated the Airport hardware and are now selling the Linksys Velop in the Apple Store should also tell you where they are headed.

Some reputable Apple bloggers have also commented that Apple is doing a disservice to some of their less technically savvy customers by selling obsolete Airports at their obscene prices.

Myself, I sold off my Airports and Time Capsule last year while I could still get some value out of them. I switched to the Eero mesh routers and couldn't be happier.

 

[Richdmoore]

Good point and another evidence of where Apple is headed.

Although Apple may not have specifically said they are exiting the wifi router market, the fact that they have not updated the Airport hardware and are now selling the Linksys Velop in the Apple Store should also tell you where they are headed.

Some reputable Apple bloggers have also commented that Apple is doing a disservice to some of their less technically savvy customers by selling obsolete Airports at their obscene prices.

Myself, I sold off my Airports and Time Capsule last year while I could still get some value out of them. I switched to the Eero mesh routers and couldn't be happier.

While I am very happy with my current Time Capsule, between the rumors of the airport team being broken up, and now selling the Linksys Velop in Apple retail stores, the writing is on the wall that they are discontinuing the airport series of routers. Not updating the airport express to AC wifi, or Airplay 2, is another sign of impending discontinuation.

I am a little confused about the AC wifi standard as well, as I see some routers advertising AC wifi Wave 2, and advertise greater speeds than normal AC wifi. I would assume that both devices need to support wave 2 to get the higher speeds, but I am not positive. The current time capsule/airport extreme does not support wave 2.

 

[Juicy Box]

I don’t recall Apple officially making any statement about this.

This, times a thousand.

Apple never actually ANNOUNCED that they were ceasing AirPort development. It's just a rumor based on some teams being reassigned within the company.

I am not searching through 50 pages for it, but somewhere in this thread, one of the MR contributors received conformation that Apple was ceasing development of the AirPort.

 

[bob24]

I don’t recall Apple officially making any statement about this.

Given the pretty credible reports of they team having been disbanded, how very long it has been since the last product refresh, and the fact that they have started to sell Linksys wifi products ... there are many reasons not to be optimistic about future products.

 

[Starship67]

Given the pretty credible reports of they team having been disbanded, how very long it has been since the last product refresh, and the fact that they have started to sell Linksys wifi products ... there are many reasons not to be optimistic about future products.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.