See you later, maybe? —

Apple retires the Thunderbolt Display without announcing a replacement

Apple tells users to look elsewhere instead of replacing the 5-year-old screen.

Apple retires the Thunderbolt Display without announcing a replacement

Apple has yet to announce an updated version of 2011's Thunderbolt Display, but pretty soon it won't be selling the old one either. The company will sell through any existing stock in the online and brick-and-mortar Apple Stores, but it doesn't plan to continue manufacturing the current model.

According to a statement given to TechCrunch, Apple is pointing its users toward third-party monitors. There are plenty of these, and they come in all different sizes, screen resolutions, panel qualities, and prices, though few offer actual Thunderbolt activity; regular USB hubs are far more common.

Some pre-WWDC scuttlebutt indicated that Apple is working on a 5K Retina version of the Thunderbolt Display, possibly with its own dedicated GPU to work around bandwidth limitations of the DisplayPort 1.2 spec. That monitor never materialized, but it could still show up as part of a Mac-related push when Apple updates its MacBook Pros and other computers. These refreshes are said to be coming later this year.

For now, if you buy a Mac Mini or Mac Pro and want a monitor or if you just want a second screen for your iMac or MacBook, you'll need to buy a Thunderbolt Display before Apple's stock runs out or buy something from somewhere else and live with the extra cables.

Channel Ars Technica