I was really hoping that they were just waiting until the next WiFi standard to come out to release new AirPort base stations. I'm sad that they're being discontinued.
However, I do wonder: What will they recommend to replace the Time Capsule for networked backup purposes? We can still do Time Machine backups to local USB drives, but retiring the Time Capsule leaves a big hole for this application.
Probably other routers with a network drive attached. They’ll probably recommend some just like the did when they discontinued their cinema displays and promoted LG.