Third-Generation Apple TV Discontinued, Removed From Apple Online Store

Apple has discontinued the third-generation Apple TV set-top box, with the tech giant quietly removing the device from its online store. The company confirmed the discontinuation of the device to its employees and education partners in an email.

“Effective immediately, Apple TV (3rd generation), MD/199LL/A, has reached end of life and is now discontinued,” the email obtained by 9To5Mac said. “The Apple Supply team is going to fulfill all shippable backlog."

The discontinuation of the device did not come as a surprise, since the company has been gradually phasing it out from its physical stores since early September, according to MacRumors. The set-top box was first released back in 2012, and it received a hardware upgrade a year later. The company is still selling refurbished units of the third-gen device for $59, but supplies are very limited.

Apple has not made a public announcement of the discontinuation of the third-generation Apple TV, and it remains unclear whether its users will receive any additional software updates. The last software update for the device was released back in February, but it was only for various security fixes.

The third-generation Apple TV is severely out of date and is currently running an optimized version of iOS 8.4. It no longer has support for HomeKit and Apple’s two-setp verification, nor is it able to access Apple Music or iCloud, as pointed out by ArsTechnica.

The company already has the current fourth-gen Apple TV which was released back in September 2015. The fourth-gen device runs the new tvOS operating system which supports Siri and playing games. It seems that the tech giant will be solely focusing on further developing the current model and possibly working on its successor.

The fourth-gen Apple TV is available from Apple’s online store and retail stores for $149 for the 32GB model and $199 for the 64GB model.