White MacBook sales come to close as Apple ceases sales to education institutions

Apple has reportedly notified resellers that the white polycarbonate MacBook is now officially classified as "End of Life" and has been discontinued.

AppleInsider was first to report last year that the white MacBook would be phased out. A day later, Apple pulled the white MacBook from its consumer-facing website.

The Cupertino, Calif., company then announced that the laptop would only be available to educational institutions. MacRumors reported on Wednesday that Apple has stopped even those sales and notified resellers that the MacBook is now classified as "End of Life."

The MacBook was Apple's entry-level notebook for years, but it faced internal competition in 2010 with the release of the 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which also started at $999 and was an instant hit.

Apple introduced the MacBook in May 2006 during the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors. In 2008, it temporarily received an aluminum makeover, but that machine was later rebranded as the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple released a unibody polycarbonate design in 2009 that remained until the product was discontinued last year.

Apple promoted the MacBook as "the notebook for everyone" before it was discontinued.

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18 Comments

suddenly newton

said about 12 years ago

The end of the polycarbonate era at Apple. There are still vestiges of it in products like the AirPort Extreme and AppleTV, but for the Mac line, it's all aluminium and glass.

solipsismx

said about 12 years ago

Sales that bad or an impending refresh of the Mac notebook line will remove the ODD from the MBPs and make the at least the 13" MBP the new MB for a time being?

tallest skil

said about 12 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton

There are still vestiges of it in products like the AirPort Extreme and AppleTV, but for the Mac line, it's all aluminium and glass.

And it will never leave them. At least, not until Apple starts making their cases out of LiquidMetal.

apple ][

said about 12 years ago

It's about time! I never did like the look of that white Macbook. It reminds me of something that should be in a kitchen. I'm probably biased, because I do have a black macbook, but on the other hand, I don't mind the look of the white iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, they look pretty nice.

cvaldes1831

said about 12 years ago

End of an era.

The best thing about the white MacBook (and the iBook that it replaced) was the killer WiFi antenna performance. My white MacBook (late 2006 model) still has better WiFi reception than anything else I've tried.