Apple's 2013 and 2014 iMacs Now Obsolete, Apple Watch Series 2 Marked as Vintage

[AcesHigh87]

Apple obsoletes it’s equipment too quickly.

Better than most. Looked it up last night because I saw this article and was curious. Dell only supports BIOS updates for 4 years and stops selling repair parts, making their devices EoL (IE Obsolete) after 5 years. So apple doing this to 7 year old hardware is still better than the competition; the only difference being that apple hardware still works fine after 7 years (and will continue to do so, doesn't turn into a brick just because apple stops support) while most windows machines will be next to useless in that timeframe.

 

[Salaryman Ryan]

I still have my retina 27 inch 2014 as my Netflix, Spotify, and browsing machine. My M1 Macs are much faster but I think the 27 inch is still good for many more years. There are also a bunch of 2010 era iMacs I donated to orphanages and schools in my country that are still running well. The only problem is the software support. I simply hate the thought of sending these still working Macs off to a landfill. Wish Apple would give a bit longer official software support for these still perfectly serviceable old Macs.

 

[NY Guitarist]

My 2014 was obsolete the moment I saw the beautiful 5K Retina develop a disgusting and chronic screen burn-in that showed previously open desktop windows etc while I used other apps. Not a great thing for visual media clients to see at all.

It was a capable machine but I pulled that embarrassment from my office and demoted it to occasionally checking email and MR from home.

 

[iluvcrap2000]

8 Years and it's worthless. Apple Has a habit of not supporting old devices, but put a linux distro on it and it works like a champ, Windows, works too. So Is Apple doing this deliberately? for their own Profit! OF COURSE! Are all these dead machines worthless? No! It's Apple Tax, PROFIT.

 

[seek3r]

Better than most. Looked it up last night because I saw this article and was curious. Dell only supports BIOS updates for 4 years and stops selling repair parts, making their devices EoL (IE Obsolete) after 5 years. So apple doing this to 7 year old hardware is still better than the competition; the only difference being that apple hardware still works fine after 7 years (and will continue to do so, doesn't turn into a brick just because apple stops support) while most windows machines will be next to useless in that timeframe.

Also there’s quite a bit of tools out there, opencore mostly these days, for keeping the latest macos running relatively painlessly for quite a bit longer. We’ll see if that stays true in the ARM era, but I’d bet it will. And there’s always loading linux on older hardware to keep it going even longer

 

[seek3r]

8 Years and it's worthless. Apple Has a habit of not supporting old devices, but put a linux distro on it and it works like a champ, Windows, works too. So Is Apple doing this deliberately? for their own Profit! OF COURSE! Are all these dead machines worthless? No! It's Apple Tax, PROFIT.

Supporting old hardware isnt free, it takes developer time, qa and support, even UI/UX work. It also means over time features tied to new hardware capabilities the old machines cant manage pile up. 8 years for official support is pretty good, especially since Apple doesnt really go out of their way to block solutions to running the OS unofficially, which you can usually do for a few years longer. Pretty much all my 2010-2012 era machines can run MacOS 12 now relatively painlessly.

 

[minik]

Absolutely insane that Apple considers a high-end PC sold until late 2015 (and cost what, > £2000? in base spec ?) “obsolete”.

I’m writing this on a windows PC thats 5 years older and still gets updates of Win 10 and can run anything.

This crap puts me off committing to more Apple hardware.

It's obsolete for hardware support but macOS support is longer. macOS Big Sur on the iMac (Late 2014) till Fall 2023. Yes Windows 10 EOL comes October 14, 2025.

 

[seek3r]

It's obsolete for hardware support but macOS support is longer. macOS Big Sur on the iMac (Late 2014) till Fall 2023. Yes Windows 10 EOL comes October 14, 2025.

That too, old OSes still get security updates for a long time from Apple

 

[Edsel]

Last year, I woke-up up my 2004 Dual 2.5 G5 Power Mac with the 23" Cinema display. "Obsolete" works as well as it did when new. My basement is littered with old Apple stuff. It's hard to "bury" the G5 because that obsolete old Mac still wants to be be relevant.

 

[jacou]

I'm glad you confirmed that. I too have one that I'm reluctant to abandon as it's still plenty powerful for my needs.

Was it a nightmare to install? I've not used opencore yet so I don't really know what's entailed.

Here you can find the latest version (GUI app is the best): https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases

And here is a good video how to install it:

I found it simple and pain free.
Good luck!

 

[rb2112]

Was it a nightmare to install? I've not used opencore yet so I don't really know what's entailed.

It was not a nightmare for me and I just updated my 2013 3.5 GHz 27 inch yesterday to OS 12 using this how-to video (link below) and had no issues. You will need a 16GB+ USB stick and an internet connection. It was also nice to have a 2nd PC or a phone to watch the video on.

 

[Steve121178]

8 Years and it's worthless. Apple Has a habit of not supporting old devices, but put a linux distro on it and it works like a champ, Windows, works too. So Is Apple doing this deliberately? for their own Profit! OF COURSE! Are all these dead machines worthless? No! It's Apple Tax, PROFIT.

What are you on about? They all still continue to work just fine. My late 2012 iMac is still my main machine and I'll continue to use it until it dies. Just because Apple stopped supporting the hardware a few years ago doesn't make it worthless.

To be honest, it's on its last legs now as the Fusion drive is the bottleneck and performance is starting to rapidly degrade. I hope to upgrade when Apple releases the new iMacs later next year. That will mean my iMac has had 10/11 years service. I've never had a machine last that long in my life.

2013/2014 iMac users can carry on as normal.

 

[cpnotebook80]

The 5,1 was by far the most upgradeable mac of the intel era, maybe ever, it had some seriously long legs

I am still running it as we speak. I did have the studio ultra when it came out but returned it and decided to wait for few gens later to upgrade as price at 5k cdn was too much to swallow at the time. I have 128gb ram in this i added in 2 years ago ! and although i use my m1 mbp for most of the tasks, i use the 5,1 in tandem with the cinema display and benq and works ok for my needs. I'm not into video or music editing or heavy graphic gaming work yet. I make do with what i have.

 

[fathergll]

Thing is with the 2014 iMac is that you can take anyone off the street and they wouldn't even know it's a 'old' computer. The screen is still modern and basic tasks are quick enough.

 

[rb2112]

It was not a nightmare for me and I just updated my 2013 3.5 GHz 27 inch yesterday to OS 12 using this how-to video (link below) and had no issues. You will need a 16GB+ USB stick and an internet connection. It was also nice to have a 2nd PC or a phone to watch the video on.

I have to caveat my comment. OCLP Monterey is working fine on my 2013 iMac as above. But it does not work on my 2012 MBP 15 unibody. I have tried a few times to follow-on install Windows 10 via Bootcamp after Monterey and it will not work (cannot install based on formatting of Boot Camp Partition. After that, I just reinstalled OCLP Monterey time and again on a fresh erased SSD hangs every time on startup of Monterey. I get the system running by installing 10.15, then install OCLP per instructions, but then the system will never load past the Apple logo and about 5% progress bar, whether or not the Monterey OCLP installer USB is still inserted. I am planning on going back to 10.15 and staying there for this MBP. Unfortunately, the OCLP is not installing without boot issues

 

[paul_liverpoolfc]

Still using a 2011 21.5" iMac, which I bought new in January 2012. The only upgrade it's had is the RAM to 12GB and the OS upgrades to High Sierra. The DVD drive failed playing movie DVDs about 5 years ago. Everything else is still working absolutely fine - the web cam, screen, speakers, fans. When I bought it, I never expected it to last as long as it has. I've got absolutely no intention of selling it, as it works fine for my uses - web browsing, simple games, music, e-mails, basic editing of photos. Although it's now Vintage according to Apple, I'm still finding new games to download from the App Store. I like to think it's got another couple of years left in it.

 

[Siestaleslie]

Cool, I’ll let the 09 running my moms house know. It’ll just laugh bc it knows it’ll just keep on getting new graphics cards, SSD’s and ram until the world runs out.

And the 08 running all my life too !