Apple Select 'Vintage' Products

Usually, Apple products become retro after five years of production, which means Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP) will no longer repair the product.

However, in late January, Apple launched a pilot program that allowed Apple Stores and AASP to continue to service some of the older products, depending on the availability of parts. The program launched the iMac in the US and Turkey in mid-2011 and launched the 2012 MacBook Air worldwide in August.

Now, Apple is expanding the program to include the iPhone 5, which will be available on Wednesday. In an internal document, Apple said that the global Apple Stores and AASP have the right to continue to service the CDMA variant of the device by October 31, 2020, and have the right to provide GSM variants by December 30, 2020. The Apple internal files were obtained from multiple sources by MacRumors and outlined other upcoming iPhones and Macs that will be added to the pilot program on different days of the year: November 30, 2018

For:

iPhone 4S

MacBook Pro (15 inches, mid-2012)

Effective from December 30, 2018:

MacBook Pro (13 inches, Retina, late 2012)

MacBook Pro (13 inches, Retina, early 2013)

MacBook Pro (15 inches, Retina, mid-2012)

MacBook Pro (15 inches, Retina, early 2013)

Mac Pro (mid-2012)

If the part cannot be used for specific repairs of these vintage products, the Apple Store and AASP will be asked to refuse service. This is a starting pilot program and therefore may change or end at any time.

The exact reasons for the pilot program are unclear, except that Apple clearly has excess repair parts for these specific vintage products. Apple's internal documents indicate that the inventory of service parts will not be replenished, so the repairs under the pilot program are certainly not certain.