If you've been planning to outfit your Apple products with the Thunderbolt Display, you'll have to hurry, as stocks will not be replenished by Apple.
Only a limited few are left on Apple's online retail store, and the company has formally announced that it will be stopping productions of the Thunderbolt Display. The company will only be selling the product until supplies last.
"We're discontinuing the Apple Thunderbolt Display. It will be available through Apple.com, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
Reports have earlier been informed that Thunderbolt Displays have yet to be restocked by the company, speculating that the company may be scrapping the old-gen Apple displays to replace it with a new line of higher resolution displays.
The Thunderbolt Display was released back in July 2011 and has been in the industry for about five years. Its "current" but highly criticized outdated 27-inch model only offers resolutions of up to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, sold at a relatively steep price of $999, as other brands with better specifications and even its own line of products can be bought at a much lower cost: an actual Apple 5K iMac with a complete CPU inside starts at $800.
Supposedly, Apple is expected to produce a 5K monitor instead (about time) that supports resolutions of up to 5,120 x 2,880 pixels. To achieve this, experts claimed that the monitor would have a dedicated graphics card built into it while featuring connections over USB-C ports rather than the Thunderbolt 3.
The highly rumored monitor would carry the name "Apple 5K display" and was expected to be launched at the recently concluded WWDC. There was no announcement whatsoever, as the conference only featured software upgrades from the company sans any details for future Apple hardware.
Also, despite Apple's recent statement regarding the current state of its Thunderbolt displays, it only confirms a part of most assumptions without offering additional details about the company's future plans. This has led others to believe that the company might be withdrawing from the computer monitor market altogether.
"There are a number of great third-party options available for Mac users," the Apple spokesperson adds, which further support claims of Apple's withdrawal from the industry.
In more positive news, the company is expected to launch newer models of its MacBook Pro lineup featuring thinner and lighter bodies with an OLED display touch bar. The laptops, offered in 13-inch and 15-inch options, will support connectivity through USB-C ports and Thunderbolt 3.
