Apple has over the weekend discontinued its 21.5-inch Intel-based iMac from stores. The move comes half a year after it introduced the 24-inch M1 iMac. The discontinuation is said not to come as much of a surprise, as Apple is transitioning from using Intel processors to its in-house M1 chip and with the discontinuation of the Intel-based small iMac, only two iMacs are in the Apple lineup: 24-inch M1 iMac and 27-inch Intel iMac.
According to reports, the 21.5-inch iMac was still available after Apple’s October 18th Unleashed event — it didn’t appear to go missing until sometime this week. The $1,099 21.5-inch iMac, which came with a 2.3GHz dual-core 7th-Gen Intel Core i5 and an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640, is no longer found on the list of available iMacs on Apple’s online store. A “Buy” button also doesn’t appear for the 21.5-inch iMac on Apple’s product comparison page.
Apple who initially didn’t respond when asked if it has discontinued the sale of the 21.5-inch Intel-powered iMac affirmed that the machine is being discontinued and won’t be sold through Apple’s online store or in its retail stores.
Apple hasn’t eliminated its entire lineup of Intel-based iMacs just yet — it’s still selling the 27-inch Intel-based iMac, which sports up to a 3.6GHz 10-core Intel Core i9 CPU, at a starting price of $1799.99. As MacRumors notes, you can still purchase a refurbished 21.5-inch iMac from Apple’s online store.
Apple discontinued the 21.5-inch Intel-powered iMac and it is planning to launch a new MacBook next year.
As the news of Apple discontinuing the Intel iMac floated, a report has revealed that Apple is planning to launch a new iMac, which could be the upcoming iMac Pro, in the first half of 2022. But isn’t confirmed if the upcoming iMac will be a 27-inch iMac replacement or the iMac Pro replacement.
Apple is also planning to launch a new MacBook Air next year which could be called just “MacBook” so launching a new iMac with iMac Pro branding would make a lot of sense since this will streamline the Mac series as “MacBook and MacBook Pro” and “iMac and iMac Pro.”