Forums | MacLife

Not just the opening but a couple of other entries, notably

And now the last of the Power Mac G4s are being sent out to pasture.

That GigaHertz G4, age 5, is likely EOL, except in Cali. More recent models shouldn't be, unless Apple's changed its defintions, which seems unlikely given legal considerations.

G5s won't be by age, but if the rumors are true, they will be off the Snow Leopard upgrade path and all its OpenCL goodness.

The 5/7 year yardstick seems the safest to apply until clarification comes.

BTW Here is how the original MacMerc article read.

On March 17th, the following items will be officially deemed "vintage" or "obsolete" in Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, the United States and retail Apple Stores. After that date, Apple will not provide service parts or documentation for these products and the items cannot be sent in as Mail-In Repairs to AppleCare Repair Centers. Time to hit your parents up for some new tech, boys and girls.

Here's the "vintage" list:
• Xserve RAID
• Xserve (Slot Load)
• Xserve (Cluster Node)

...and here's the "obsolete" list:
• PowerBook G4
• Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)
• Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver)
• Macintosh Server G4 (Digital Audio)
• Macintosh Server G4 (Quicksilver)

Yup, the G4s are almost done as far as Apple support is concerned.

What's the difference between "vintage" and "obsolete"? It's kind of a legal thing. Service parts for vintage products are only available to repair older Apple products purchased in the state of California, as required by statute.There is no difference between vintage and obsolete products anywhere else.

The one bit of sensationalism being the line, "Yup, the G4s are almost done as far as Apple support is concerned."