3rd Generation Apple TV officially discontinued

In an official message sent Tuesday October 4th to employees and educators, Apple has officially discontinued the 3rd generation Apple TV (MD199LL/A), effective immediately.

The aging streaming device has been waiting to get the ax for some time, as Apple focuses all of its attention to its 4th-gen tvOS powered set top box.

The 3rd generation Apple TV was first introduced in 2012, and updated only once, in 2013. Since then, no more refreshes followed until 2015, when a radically new successor was introduced, amidst speculation that Apple would even end the Apple TV product line altogether. Those rumors were shattered by a device that, not only is more powerful than its predecessor, but better in every way, from search capabilities, to the ability to use voice commands and access Siri to perform different tasks, like displaying sports score overlays while a movie or show is playing, and even order pizza delivery.

In the wake of the 4th gen Apple TV’s unveiling, Apple slashed the price of the previous model by nearly half, and has continued selling refurbished models as low as $59, from a severely limited supply. Finally this week, Apple has removed the 3rd generation Apple TV from its online store, and will only fulfill backlog orders, effectively ending the 3rd generation Apple TV.

This might also mean that 3rd gen Apple TVs may not receive further updates, or at least no further than this year, as Apple is fully invested in further developing iOS 10 and beyond, including all of its device-specific iterations like tvOS, and watchOS.

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