Apple added the MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) and MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) to its official list of vintage and obsolete products today, Mac Rumors is reporting. Also added was the Xserve (Early 2009), a discontinued rack server running OS X. Devices that Apple hasn’t manufactured for five years are added to the Vintage list, which means Apple won’t sell parts for the devices to anyone outside California or Turkey.
This list has nothing to do with operating system upgrades. Plenty of vintage and obsolete devices can run El Capitan, including the 2010 MacBook Pro. Instead, the list is about hardware service. Customers cannot expect to buy Apple-made spare parts for vintage devices, unless they live in certain areas. Customers cannot expect to buy parts for obsolete devices at all.
Why the seperate “Vintage” and “Obsolete” classifications? Two jurisdictions — the US state of California and the nation of Turkey — have laws requiring Apple to provide parts for longer than five years. For this reason, Apple has two classification of devices.
- Vintage: Devices made between 5 and 7 years ago. Parts for these Macs can be ordered in places where the law requires it — the US state of California and the nation of Turkey.
- Obsolete: Devices made 5 years ago in most places, and 7 years ago in the US state of California and the nation of Turkey. Apple does not provide parts for these devices.
If you’re part of the vast majority of humans who lives outside California and Turkey, you might wish Apple sold spare 2010 MacBook parts in your area. But unless your government passes a law mandating that, it’s not going to happen.
Still, five years is a pretty long lifespan already, and you can probably get a few more years out of your device without anything catastrophic happening. Fingers crossed!
