Apple Reportedly Guts Router Division, AirPort Extreme And AirPort Time Capsule Face Death Row

by Brandon Hill — Monday, November 21, 2016, 11:25 AM EDT

If you’re an Apple enthusiast that fills your home in gear from the company, including its wireless routers, we have some bad news to bring you. According to a credible report from notorious insider Mark Gurman, Apple has demolished its wireless router division.

The deconstruction process has taken place of the past year, with engineers that previously worked on products like the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule being shuttled around to other divisions within the company. While Apple’s wireless routers integrate nicely with iPhones, iPads, and Macs, they don’t have broad appeal in a segment of the tech market that is often faced with tight margins.

AirPort Extreme (L) and AirPort Express (R)

Also working against Apple is the fact that competitors like D-Link and Netgear are considerably raising the bar with new and innovative products at a rapid pace. Netgear’s new Nighthawk X10 wireless router supports 802.11ad, includes a built-in Plex Media Server and a burly 1.7GHz quad-core processor. Even Google is looking to shake things up in the market with the Google WiFi router, which uses mesh technology to add coverage to every nook and cranny of your house.

But there are also two other things that have worked against Apple’s wireless router products — both of which are self-inflicted. First of all, the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule (basically an AirPort Extreme with an internal hard drive for Time Machine backups) haven’t been updated in over three years. In addition, pricing (ranging from $99 for the Airport Express to $399 for the Airport Time Capsule 3TB) has put the products well out of contention in competing with the top wireless routers on the market from a performance/value perspective.

“Exiting the router business could make Apple’s product ecosystem less sticky,” writes Gurman. “Some features of the AirPort routers, including wireless music playback, require an Apple device like an iPhone or Mac computer. If the company no longer sells wireless routers, some may have a reason to use other phones and PCs.”

For those that are fans of the AirPort series of products, this is likely sad news. However, rest assured that you’ll likely be able to find a much better router for less money from the competition.

Tags: Apple, Time Capsule, airport

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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