Apple Inc. has disbanded its division that develops wireless routers, another move to try to sharpen the company's focus on consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue, according to people familiar with the matter.
Apple began shutting down the wireless router team over the past year, dispersing engineers to other product development groups, including the one handling the Apple TV, said the people, who asked not to be named because the decision hasn't been publicly announced.
Apple hasn't refreshed its routers since 2013 following years of frequent updates to match new standards from the wireless industry. The decision to disband the team indicates the company isn't currently pushing forward with new versions of its routers. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's plans.
Routers are access points that connect laptops, iPhones and other devices to the web without a cable. Apple currently sells three wireless routers, the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time capsule. The Time capsule doubles as a backup storage hard drive for Mac computers.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday November 25 2016, @07:21PM
Yes, that's correct, but they also connect can also connect machines within a single network.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday November 25 2016, @08:22PM
In what sense though? If you mean the 'switch' part of (most) routers then sure, but that is bypassing the routing capability; and has as much to do with being a router as the wireless access point does: nothing.
Plus the switch part isn't necessary for it to be a router. For example it would be possible to build a one port router that just routes packets between different VLANs on the same NIC.