Apple is officially discontinuing its AirPort routers
RIP AirPort, AirPort Extreme, and Time Capsule
Apple is officially getting out of the router business, with the company announcing today that it will be discontinuing its AirPort, AirPort Extreme, and Time Capsule routers. Apple will reportedly continue to offer bug fixes and security patches for the devices going forward, but the company is selling off all of its remaining AirPort hardware while supplies last.
The death of Apple’s router business has been a long time coming, with Bloomberg reporting back in November 2016 that Apple had disbanded the hardware division responsible for its routers, which last saw an update for 802.11ac Wi-Fi back in 2013. Since then, the company’s AirPort offerings have been slowly rendered obsolete by the rising popularity of mesh Wi-Fi systems like Eero, Google Wifi, and the Linksys Velop (the last of which Apple actually sells in its stores now.)
Still, the AirPort dream might not totally be dead — Apple commented that the company might return to the space sometime in the future if it finds a meaningful way to progress routers further.
