According to a company memo sent out Monday and obtained by MacRumors, Apple’s fourth-gen iPad will be added to the official list of obsolete gadgets and already has been added to the list of vintage gadgets. Apple considers a product obsolete once active distribution has ceased for more than seven years. What does this mean for current fourth-generation iPad users? The company will not service the hardware for any reason. Additionally, third-party service providers will not be able to order parts for the once-groundbreaking tablet. The only instance in which Apple will service obsolete hardware is in the case of a Mac notebook needing a battery replacement. The fourth-generation Apple iPad launched with much fanfare in November 2012. The tablet was the first to feature a Lightning connector and the first to include the company’s A6X mobile chipset, which doubled CPU and graphics performance over the third-generation iPad. It also included the newly minted Retina display and storage options up to 128GB. The fourth-gen iPad won’t be alone in the scrap heap. According to the same memo, the company also classified the late 2012 model Mac mini as an obsolete product.
