Why has Apple discontinued its own Thunderbolt Display?

Apple is discontinuing its Thunderbolt Display docking station, which transforms a Macbook into a desktop workstation.

The 27-inch LED-backlit screen will continue to be sold while supplies last, but no more will be produced going forwards.

The company told TechCrunch: "We’re discontinuing the Apple Thunderbolt Display. It will be available through Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores and Apple authorised resellers while supplies last.

"There are a number of great third-party options available for Mac users."

So why has Apple discontinued it?

At £899, the Thunderbolt isn’t the cheapest display solution on the market, and in recent years new monitor technologies have emerged, such as 4K, curved and G-Sync.

The use of first-generation Thunderbolt is possibly holding it back too, considering Thunderbolt 3 is now emerging on some PCs, as Engadget points out. 

It’s not clear what Apple’s plans are in the monitor market in the future, but speculation suggests they could be working on a Thunderbolt 3 5K version, or even leaving the standalone displays sector entirely. 

Others suggest a GPU will be added to the display hardware to better target gamers, while some believe Apple is focusing on making a new display with P3 colour gamut technology.

Apple says P3 brings about 25 per cent more color to a display, which can improve photo editing or other visual design work.