“AirPort base stations are beginning to sell out or disappear entirely from Apple’s online and retail stores in select countries, a few weeks after Apple announced it has discontinued the lineup of routers,” Joe Rossignol reports for MacRumors.
“The first casualty is the AirPort Extreme, now listed as “sold out” on Apple’s online store in the United States, and unavailable for pickup at Apple’s retail stores across the country,” Rossignol reports. “The base station remains available in limited quantities in select other countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, and Singapore.”
“AirPort Express and AirPort Time Capsule models remain in stock on Apple’s online store in the United States, and select other countries, but they will eventually sell out too as inventory continues to dwindle,” Rossignol reports. “Apple said that its AirPort products would only remain available while supplies last, so this was to be expected eventually. Prior to being discontinued, Apple hadn’t refreshed its lineup of AirPort base stations in five to six years.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: R.I.P, AirPort. Long live, Eero!
With Apple seemingly out of the Wi-Fi game, the closest we’re going to get to Apple-esque good looks and ease-of-use are Eero products.
SEE ALSO:
Requiem for the AirPort base station: A testament to everything Apple was and isn’t anymore – April 27, 2018
Apple makes yet another short-sighted decision: Apple has discontinued a product that it should have made a cornerstone of its home automation and entertainment ecosystem – April 27, 2018
Watch Steve Jobs passionately defend his commitment to Apple in 1997 – April 27, 2018
Apple’s decision to discontinue AirPort products is the wrong decision at the wrong time – April 27, 2018
Apple pulls plug on AirPort Wi-Fi router business – April 26, 2018
Eero’s new mesh WiFi system packs more power in an Apple-esque design – June 29, 2017
AppleInsider reviews eero Wi-Fi: ‘A solid option for Apple’s outgoing AirPort’ – February 27, 2017
With Eero, you can kiss slow Wi-Fi goodbye forever – February 10, 2017
I loved the AirPort Extreme. It is simple to setup and configure. I hope one day soon we hear that they are reinvesting in their Apple routers, workstations, servers, iMacs, getting rid of the utterly useless led touch strip on their MacBook pros. In other words start putting money back iinto computing rather than being Nokia.
I use AirPlay every day of my life – to send music from iTunes on my iMac via AirPort Extreme to three stereos via Airport Expresses spread out in my long ranch-style house. So do I need to stock up on Airports or are there Any other alternatives? This just sucks.
Apple TV if you can use the HDMI output.
If not this might help-
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/should-i-use-hdmi-audio-converter-my-apple-tv
And I use Airplay via two Expresses (stereos) and two AppleTVs (A/V systems) all handled by Roon.
Most AV and Stereo Receivers that support network services like spotify and pandora, will also support Airplay.
Not older or higher end stereo receivers/ integrateds but yes a lot of the newer (especially A/V) receivers use Airlpay.
I would have liked to have bought the latest 2TB Time Capsule but my older 2TB Time Capsule is quite sufficient for my home network. I don’t have the money to just toss a decently working device for something newer. I think I’ll be able to manage with a non-Apple router in the future as long as Apple guarantees compatibility with a particular brand or model.
Eero-ry experience – a $400 solution with 3 devices to replace 1 Time machine.
Why is Apple leaving money on the table?
Apple’s marching to a different drummer.
Pete Best.
My Airport TC is going strong.
Apple must be loosing a LOT of money on base stations, I’ve had them since the very first one they made. Apple is really pissing off us long time buyers the past few years.
They’re doing what they did with the 2013 Mac Pro. They failed to update and upgrade those systems, and so sales fell. These haven’t been upgraded for 5 years, so sales fell. If they’re losing money selling outdated (but still very good) products, then that’s their fault. It’s not as if they can’t afford to do the R&D required to modernize the products.
It’s a shame, because as old as the designs are, they are still among the best out there.
My house, built in 1925, is like a faraday cage, with steel mesh in every wall and ceiling. As a result, I use 4. With my Fios, I get 1Gbs service. With my WiFi, I can get 400-500 Mbs service throughout my home. That’s twice what the best, new mesh systems can do. Even though Apple’s units are not marketed as Mesh, they function that way. I can only imagine what Apple could have done if they decided to.
But it seems as though Apple only wants to have multi $billion product lines. If they can’t reach $5 billion a year, or so, it’s dumped. I really believe that’s the wrong way to go. To be dependent on just a few iconic products isn’t good.
Agreed. But Apple fervently believes they can gin up iconic products one after another, so they serenely focus on overall profitability. If one of their products turns out to be a dud, they simply wait for the next thing to pop out of the pipeline; if that doesn’t catch fire, they wait for the next one; and so on. This belief system of theirs is only as reliable as their R&D. As a corporation, they are criminally overconfident. Their bluster and moxie worked when Steve Jobs projected his reality distortion field that psychologically affected markets, but lately Apple’s just another giant tech firm, humming to themselves as they play around in the lab just like the engineers at Google or Amazon, congratulating themselves on their bonuses and failing to detect any sort of urgency.
I’m sorry, but the bloom is off the rose. Wall Street detected this a long time Go.
It’s still bad overall. One of the reasons Apple’s stock, which I have a fair amount of, moves so much, is because it’s too dependent on iPhone sales, at about 63% of sales. This gives these who want to, an excuse to bash the company. Having more less seasonal sales will smooth that out. I had two companies over the years, and smoothing out product lines was a major effort, at times.
We see criticism that products like the Apple Watch, HomePod, ATv, and others are too small to “move” the company. But in aggregate, they do.
More advertising for these product lines would help, as would advertising the Mac again. Samsung Electronics outspends Apple 7:1 in advertising. I would have rather Apple spend more, and bought back less sock.
Apple makes money but continues to do stupid things when it comes to there product line. But why bother, they’re so much smarter than any of us.
Leave MDN.
MDN served an ad on my Mac last night that was unforgivable.
It simulated a virus attack, with sophisticated graphics that could make the novice Mac user fear his Mac had downloaded several viruses.
It was deliberate and very convincing.
I had to force quit Safari.
Of course, there was no virus, but this behavior can not be tolerated.
I urge you to remove MacDailyNews from your bookmarks, delete the app, and paste this message on future discussion boards.
MDN is selling exploitative ads. Unacceptable.
Or use Adguard.
I quit getting MacKeeper crap as soon as I did.
My Apple ‘museum’ grows and grows
I just bought one. Replacing my 2nd gen. Long overdue. The 2nd gen still works fine, but range is so so on second floor.
Yeah, MDN. What about that “3 Viruses” ad? Why do you run an ad that either either rips off or insults the intelligence of your readers?
Websites don’t necessarily “choose” what ads you see…the advertising companies do. That ad is targeted to you. Or..is more generally target to an audience that will notice ads related to technology…because…this is a…tech news site. It seems to have worked since you noticed it..then talked about it..and if just one reader clicks on it because you mentioned it…it did it’s job. Congratulations. You were successfully influenced by social engineering/psychology 101.
Thanks for that.
Why anybody would still buy this is beyond me. Just get EERO, it does so much better for coverage and steaming. I couldn’t believe the difference and kicked myself for waiting so long to get it.
Sorry, streaming (thanks auto(stupid) correct