Earlier this week, Apple added the last non-Retina MacBook Air to its list of vintage products and moved the iPad mini 4 and 32GB Apple TV HD to its list of obsolete products. Yesterday, Apple added another product to its list of vintage products, and that was the Wi-Fi model of the iPad Air (3rd generation). Cellular models of the said iPad were already on the list, but since Apple sold Wi-Fi models for an extended period of time, it was time to declare those a “vintage.”
That specific model was introduced in March 2019 alongside the iPad mini (5th generation). That device was actually the first one to revive the “iPad Air” branding after the iPad Air 2 was discontinued in March 2017. Since the revived branding was used as the “middle-tier” model that sat between the regular iPad and the iPad Pro, this meant the iPad Air 3’s design was based on the 2017 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which allowed the iPad Air to be compatible with two accessories designed for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro: the Apple Pencil (1st generation) and the Smart Keyboard. The two major differences between the iPad Air 3 and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro was that the iPad Air 3 featured two speakers (instead of four), and it lacked ProMotion technology. The iPad Air 3 was one of the last iPad models to feature the older design with thicker top/bottom bezels, the Lightning port for charging, and Touch ID on the home button. Its successor, the iPad Air 4, was introduced in September 2020, and it borrowed the design from the 2018 iPad Pros, albeit with Touch ID on the top button instead of Face ID.
Apple declares its products “vintage” when five years have elapsed since their last distribution date and “obsolete” when they hit the seven-year mark. Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers could perform repairs on vintage products, depending on whether the required parts could be obtained. Generally, obsolete products are not eligible for repair, for repair components would no longer be obtainable.
