iPhone 4 is Now Obsolete, Declares Apple. Will No Longer Repair or Supply Parts

Apple, Inc, makers of the iPhone, have announced that they will not longer provide repair service or parts for the iPhone 4. Apple will similarly discontinue servicing the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2010, the third-generation AirPort Extreme and the second-generation Time Capsule on October 31.

While Apple generally halts servicing iPhones that are older than 5 years, California requires that manufacturers support electronic devices for 7 years. So California, where Apple is based, is an exception.

While the iPhone 4 was introducted in 2010, the history of the iPhone begins with a request from inventor Steve Jobs to Apple Inc.'s engineers, asking them to investigate the use of touchscreens and a tablet computer, which later came to fruition with the iPad. Many have noted the device's similarities to Apple's previous touch-screen portable device, the Newton MessagePad. Like the Newton, the iPhone is nearly all screen. Its form factor is credited to Apple's Chief Design Officer, Jonathan Ive.

In April 2003 at the "All Things Digital" executive conference, Jobs expressed his belief that tablet PCs and traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite many requests made to him that Apple create another PDA. He believed that cell phones were going to become important devices for portable information access and that mobile phones needed to have excellent synchronization software. At the time, instead of focusing on a follow-up to their Newton PDA, Jobs had Apple focus on the iPod, and the iTunes software (which can be used to synchronize content with iPod devices), released January 2001.

On September 7, 2005, Apple and Motorola released the ROKR E1, the first mobile phone to use iTunes. Jobs was unhappy with the ROKR, feeling that having to compromise with a non-Apple designer (Motorola) prevented Apple from designing the phone they wanted to make. In September 2006, Apple discontinued support for the ROKR and released a version of iTunes that included references to an as-yet unknown mobile phone that could display pictures and video. Ed Zander (Motorola CEO at the time) "inspired" Steve Jobs with Moto's multimedia (e.g., iTunes) + smartphone product concept. In result, Apple gained new product concept which was named "iPhone" while Motorola ironically walked away with limited version of iTunes app for Rokr/Slvr.

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention. Jobs announced that the first iPhone would be released later that year. On June 29, 2007 the first iPhone was released.

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced during a media event that it had reached an agreement with Apple and would begin selling a CDMA iPhone 4. The Verizon iPhone went on sale on February 10, 2011.

During Apple's official unveiling of iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011 it was announced that Sprint would begin carrying the reconfigured CDMA iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S in the US on October 14. Cricket Wireless announced on May 31, 2012, that it would become the first prepaid carrier in the US to offer iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, beginning June 22, 2012. A week later, Virgin Mobile USA became the second American prepaid carrier to offer iPhone 4 and 4S, announcing plans to release the phones on June 29, 2012.

Due to T-Mobile USA's inability to provide iPhone to customers raised its subscription churn rate, put the unit in an "unsustainable position", and contributed to parent Deutsche Telekom's decision to sell it to AT&T in March 2011; T-Mobile began offering iPhone on April 12, 2013.

Media reports emerged in early August 2013 that announced that Apple would be launching its next iPhone model on September 10, 2013, but further details were not available. Brian Barrett, Managing Editor of the Gizmodo publication, speculated that either an upgraded version of iPhone 5 or a budget version would be released.