A while back, as in November 2016, I wrote about word that Apple was planning to stop its AirPort line of wireless networking gear by disbanding the group who built them. Fast forward to today and it’s no official according to 9to5Mac:
Apple is officially exiting the wireless router business and selling off its remaining inventory of AirPort products. This includes the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and both models of AirPort Time Capsule.
I have to say that it’s disappointing, but not a shock. The writing was on the wall since November 2016 when I wrote that original article. But I have to admit that while their wireless networking gear was expensive, it was good. I don’t think that anyone that’s making wireless gear now could touch the quality and simplicity that Apple put into their wireless gear. As an aside, Apple could port that quality over to their other products as that’s clearly lacking at the moment. But I digress. If you own Apple’s wireless networking gear, there’s no need to rush out and by replacement hardware today unless the gear your gear is on this list as being vintage or obsolete as I expect firmware updates to fix bugs and security issues to still be available. But perhaps you might want to start thinking about what your next networking gear purchase is going to be so that you’re not in a panic if it dies or support gets pulled by Apple.
UPDATE: Apple has just posted this support document on their website that speaks to how to choose a wireless router for your Apple gear.