Rumor: Apple is pulling the plug on Airport router development
Apple has dismantled its wireless router development division in the past year, the usually knowledgeable Mark Gurman reported via Bloomberg. People from the division have been transferred to other divisions, including Apple TV.
Bloomberg writes that with the decision, Apple wants to focus more on products that are responsible for the majority of its revenue. Along with the Apple Watch and Apple TV, the routers accounted for just five percent of total revenue in fiscal 2016, the news agency said.
Apple last released new routers in 2013 in the form of AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations. The AirPort Express was last updated in 2012. Bloomberg further writes that Apple focused mainly on integration with the operating system and not on implementing new standards.
Earlier this year, the company stopped making Thunderbolt Display monitors, which had been sold since 2011 and hadn’t had a new model for a long time.