The
original incarnation of Apple’s revolutionary smartphone will become
obsolete on June 11, according to a document apparently leaked from
Apple’s headquarters
.
Six years after its launch in the UK,
the iconic smartphone will no longer be serviced and replacement parts
will no longer be produced for it, the document seen by Apple blog
9to5Mac says.
Customers living in California would
have their iPhones classified as “vintage” rather than obsolete,
enabling them to order parts for the next two years due to a quirk of US
customs law.
For the rest of the world, service
repairs will have to be conducted through independent stores rather than
by Apple’s own engineers.
The first iPhone was released in 2007, selling 6.1 million units, and it was discontinued when the iPhone 3G launched in 2008.
Rivals at the time had full physical
keyboards, such as those seen on BlackBerries, or keyboards that folded
out from underneath the screen.
That all changed with the introduction
of iPhone and the App store, and consumers’ expectations for smartphones
rose quickly to include an easily navigable experience fully equipped
for browsing on the go.
Clunky operating systems and a poor user
experience were no longer acceptable, and while brands such as Samsung
adapted to the new era of smartphones, others, like Nokia, failed to act
quickly enough to capitalise on the frenzy for smartphones.
The internal communication added that a number of Mac computers are likely to become obsolete on the same day.
