The 2018 MacBook Air and two 13-inch MacBook Pros are now obsolete

Apple added three Macs to its obsolete products list on 31 August 2026: the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, the 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the 13-inch 2017 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports. All three now appear on Apple’s official vintage and obsolete list.

Obsolete is Apple’s final classification. A product becomes vintage when Apple stopped selling it more than five years ago, and obsolete once that passes seven years. Once a Mac is obsolete, Apple and its authorised service providers stop all hardware service and can no longer order parts for it. The one carve-out is batteries: Mac laptops may qualify for battery-only repairs for up to 10 years after they were last sold, subject to parts availability. The seven-year clock runs from the date Apple last sold the machine, not its launch date, which is why a 2017 laptop went obsolete on the same day as two 2018 models. The 2017 MacBook Pro stayed on sale as the cheap function-keys option until July 2019, the same month the 2018 Air was discontinued.

The move follows Apple declaring the iPhone X and the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro obsolete on 13 August.

Why these three mattered

The 2018 MacBook Air was a landmark machine. Launched in October 2018 from USD 1,199, it was the first redesign of the Air since 2010: the first with a Retina display, the first with Touch ID, and the machine that finally retired the wedge-shaped Air that defined thin laptops for a decade.

The 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro, from USD 1,799, was the first quad-core 13-inch Pro and carried Apple’s T2 security chip plus the third-generation butterfly keyboard, the quieter revision Apple shipped in the middle of its keyboard reliability saga.

The 2017 13-inch Pro, from USD 1,299, was the entry-level Pro of its day, with ordinary function keys instead of a Touch Bar.

All three are Intel machines from the butterfly keyboard era, and Apple is now retiring that whole generation. Apple moved to its own M-series chips from November 2020. macOS Tahoe, released this year, is confirmed as the last macOS version to run on any Intel Mac at all.

What this means if you own one, or want to buy one

Software support is the bigger problem here:

1. The 2017 MacBook Pro were last updated to macOS Ventura, which stopped receiving security updates in late 2025.
2. The 2018 Air tops out at macOS Sonoma, whose updates are expected to end when the next macOS ships, likely this month.
3. Only the 2018 13-inch Pro, which runs macOS Sequoia, should keep receiving security updates into 2027.

Apple does not formally publish these cut-off dates.

For Kenya, this matters because we have a serious re-used and refurbished market for imports. There is no Apple Store here, only authorised resellers and service providers, and those service providers can no longer order parts for these machines. Repairs move entirely to independent shops using salvaged or third-party parts. The butterfly keyboard is an extra risk: it was failure-prone, and Apple’s free keyboard replacement programme for these models has since expired.

If a dealer offers you a 2017 or 2018 13-inch MacBook at a tempting price, the honest advice is to stretch for an M1 or M2 machine instead. Used prices for early Apple Silicon MacBooks have fallen sharply, they still receive full macOS updates, and Apple will still fix them.