Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Reclassifies iPhone X, HomePod, and Original AirPods as 'Vintage'

This is cruel.

HomePod 1 was a great speaker system; Siri is almost entirely dependent upon online connectivity.

The processing within HomePod 1 can certainly handle the requests to Apple’s foundational model to make answers that satisfy users with Apple intelligence integration.

Apple, making it obsolete is silly. Literally have been waiting for Apple intelligence. I suppose that means the lack of software updates locks it into permanent Siri of this generation.

The new HomePod sacrifices on tweeters and woofers, yet may well not incorporate new AI features for me the update, despite being the latest generation?

Just kill the HomePod already if you truly value the user base so little.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle, gusmula, DCIFRTHS and 7 others

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Basically, “vintage” means “you can still get hardware service for these devices from Apple, but it’s been 5 years since it’s been sold/manufactured, so parts availability is while-supplies-last. “Obsolete” means first-party parts availability is not guaranteed and is usually unlikely. Sometimes Apple maintains software support for devices on the list, especially when there’s no real cost for them to do so, sometimes they don’t.

Why is it 5 and 7 years? Well, at one point in time, Apple promised lifetime support (back in the Apple II and 68k Mac eras), but that was expensive, and Apple was near bankruptcy back in the 90s (it seems that a lot of Performa machines and some missteps in the PowerBook range also were particularly prone to problems). So Apple tried cutting back the support period, and a class action lawsuit resulted. So the settlement resulted in the vintage (5 years) and obsolete (7 years) list as we know it today. 7 years was the service period in California under the settlement terms of the class action lawsuit, while 5 years was the period elsewhere.

Frankly, MacRumors needs to link to a Vintage/Obsolete FAQ on every one of these articles that explains what it means when a device becomes vintage/obsolete (and provides examples of devices that have continued to get software support past that cutoff, since that’s usually what people are concerned about, despite it being more about hardware support).
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: NARadyk, gusmula, haruhiko and 2 others
Anonymous123 said:
How is the HomePod considered vintage if it was discontinued in 2021? Per the article “Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than five and less than seven years ago” but 2021 was only three years ago so that doesn’t make sense.
Click to expand...
exactly. I'd guess Apple knows there is a hardware flaw in the Homepod.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: FriendlyMackle, Victor Mortimer, haruhiko and 1 other person
dozoy said:
7 years for a speaker is a rather short life. Not so much for a cell phone but Apple really needs to start thinking about the lifetime of their non-mobile products. I know it's not going to stop working right away, but still
Click to expand...
They do, but apparently only with the Apple TV. The 2015 model still gets software updates, longer than any Mac or iOS device. And since it was only discontinued at the end of 2022 it still has years before it's declared "vintage".
 
trip1ex said:
exactly. I'd guess Apple knows there is a hardware flaw in the Homepod.
Click to expand...
No, it’s probably more like what happened with the iPod Classic. Some parts supplier probably went belly up or something, and they couldn’t guarantee availability of replacement parts for that part anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N69AP and KeithBN
The original Homepod was sold until March 2021 - that's just over three years ago. Not five as mentioned in the article.

Sonos got a lot of flak for just reducing software updates (*) on their similar hardware that was up to 15 years old...

(*) left on an older, still maintained version of their OS - S1
 
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle, freedomlinux, mw360 and 6 others
dozoy said:
7 years for a speaker is a rather short life. Not so much for a cell phone but Apple really needs to start thinking about the lifetime of their non-mobile products. I know it's not going to stop working right away, but still
Click to expand...
If you are concerned about cost efficiency/product longevity - just a good reason to think twice about buying that kind of product from a company that strategies around product obsolescence.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Sandstorm
kc9hzn said:
No, it’s probably more like what happened with the iPod Classic. Some parts supplier probably went belly up or something, and they couldn’t guarantee availability of replacement parts for that part anymore.
Click to expand...
possible I suppose. But I don't think a part for it would be too hard to come by. From what I have read the diode in the Homepod will burn out at least in a lot of them. Also they did that weird discontinuation of the Homepod in 2021 and mysteriously came out with a new one 2 years later. Now the early drive to stop having to repair them.



Granted the Homepod is not a big seller to say the least. And thus ...Apple can put it on the chopping block much sooner with little pushback. And since they have a new one out they probably eager to stop confusing repair staff.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FriendlyMackle
trip1ex said:
maybe. But from what I have read the diode in the Homepod will burn out at least in a lot of them. Also they did that weird discontinuation of the Homepod in 2021 and mysteriously came out with a new one 2 years later.



Granted the Homepod is not a big seller to say the least. And thus ...Apple can put it on the chopping block much sooner with little pushback.
Click to expand...
Using an early addition to the vintage/obsolete list to get out of servicing a known issue a) doesn’t make much sense (vintage means “you can still get hardware support as long as we have parts availability”, it doesn’t mean “we’re not providing service at all”) and b) would open Apple up to class action lawsuits they’d probably lose (and they know that, so it’s likely something they’d try to avoid). So it’s almost certainly something to do with parts availability, and it’s almost certainly some part that’s not shared in common with the 2nd gen HomePod.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris
kc9hzn said:
Using an early addition to the vintage/obsolete list to get out of servicing a known issue a) doesn’t make much sense (vintage means “you can still get hardware support as long as we have parts availability”, it doesn’t mean “we’re not providing service at all”) and b) would open Apple up to class action lawsuits they’d probably lose (and they know that, so it’s likely something they’d try to avoid). So it’s almost certainly something to do with parts availability, and it’s almost certainly some part that’s not shared in common with the 2nd gen HomePod.
Click to expand...
vintage soon means obsolete which means no service soon enough. IF they wanted to avoid a class action they would repair for a longer period of time and be more transparent as a attempt to head one off.

I recall class actions of more recent times regarding the butterfly keyboard in Macbooks and issues with NVDA chips in MBPs. Apple not too keen on transparency when problems exist.

The part thing...doesn't add up to me. It's Apple of 2024. Richest corp in the world depending on the day. They can't get a part for a Homepod?

But given low sales of Homepods...it could be a case of low volume of repairs that cause them to list it vintage early. Perhaps further helped along by repairs that are so expensive as to be approaching the cost of a new Homepod.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Victor Mortimer and haruhiko
Still using my X. Does everything I need and none of the subsequent models have had any killer upgrades. Face ID, OLED screen and nice to hold in the hand. Handled the 15 in the Apple Store and it's pretty clunky in comparison.
 
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: gusmula and haruhiko
trip1ex said:
vintage soon means obsolete.
Click to expand...
Obsolete means “we have no replacement parts” and Vintage means “replacement parts aren’t being manufactured anymore, so parts availability is restrained”. You also didn’t address my second point, which was that Apple isn’t going to do something so stupid as “try to get out of providing support for a HomePod hardware flaw early and thus knowingly incur the wrath of lawyers and regulators, especially in this political environment*”

* All the tech firms have a target on their backs because governments around the world have decided, “they think they’re in charge, so we should make an example out of them, show them who’s boss”. You’d have to be really stupid to try to pull something you absolutely know will incur significant legal wrath just to avoid servicing some likely still made overheating diode for a customer who’s paying out of warranty repair fees. This is the major flaw of most conspiracy thinking, it runs afoul of Occam’s Razor.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: Victor Mortimer and haruhiko
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back