Apple discontinues Thunderbolt Display: A 5k display in the works, or not?

Apple has confirmed it’s pulling the shutter on its 5-year old Thunderbolt display. The company will be selling the 27-inch display priced at a whopping $999 only till stocks last. Confirming to Techcrunch, the company said, “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.” The reason for doing so could be the display itself that still seems to be stuck in the older era. For those not in the know, the Thunderbolt is an additional display that can be connected to your Macbook or other Macs. Now the current Mac has a 5K display, but the Thunderbolt still features lower resolution at 2560x1440. It has become outdated as 4K becomes more mainstream.That’s a significant difference in resolution for Apple fiends ready to shell out that huge amount for the display.  Moreover, competitors are offering better displays at lower prices. So, pulling the plug on the display isn’t really surprising. Now, the surprising part. Apple, in its statement, is encouraging users to opt for third-party displays. This could only mean that the company doesn’t plan an upgrade to the display any time soon. However, that may not be the reality as we haven’t been hearing about a successor for some time now. As  rumours , on the other hand, are rife that the company is working on a 5K display with ports and design that would match the Cupertino company’s newer product iterations. Some rumours point out at features such as built-in GPU, USB C port and the possibility to launch alongside next-generation Skylake Retina MacBook Pros that are likely to be unwrapped by late fall. Apple isn’t known to be telling its users to indulge into third-party buys, especially when it has a new, probably even more expensive model, in the pipeline. So, the dots aren’t really joining as why an abrupt announcement about stocks and asking users to opt for third-party. Another possible reason speculated is eyeing for huge orders by corporate and educational institutes. So, Apple is possibly trying to ask users to shop and exhaust its existing stock before the newer model into the picture. After all, Apple is smarter than we think.