The iPhone, yes the original one, is about to be considered obsolete. I know, it already is from a practical standpoint – but Apple is about to make it official.
Internal documentation reveals that the iPhone will be classified as “vintage” or “obsolete” by June 11th. This will affect the Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the United States.
Here’s what the internal document says (obtained by 9to5Mac):
For vintage products in the U.S., service parts are only available to repair older Apple products purchased in the state of California, as required by statute. Owners of these products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers of Apple retail stores within the state of California. Apple does not provide service parts nor service documentation for obsolete products. Obsolete products (obsolete and vintage in the U.S.) cannot be facilitated as Mail-In Repairs to AppleCare Repair Centers.
In the U.S., you won’t be able to walk in to Apple Stores and have your original iPhone serviced. But you can call directly to AppleCare and Authorized Service Providers, as it has “vintage” status.
It’s not just the iPhone that’s being given this status. Various iMacs and MacBooks are also being laid to rest, so to say.
Of course, this will rarely affect anyone in a practical way. The original iPhone, with its EDGE 2G and 128 MB of RAM is not really in the circulation anymore. It’s been discontinued for years, and you would have to look pretty hard to find a conclave of original iPhone users – considering the low price and availability of something like the iPhone 4.
But it is significant, nostalgic even. We’re now living in a world where the original iPhone, heralded as such an innovation back in 2007, is now considered obsolete. Officially.