While monitors dim and components fail over time, re-using an external Apple display with a new USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 Mac remains one of the top questions Macworld gets from its readers
Apple never releases much in the way of unit sales, but it’s a fair guess that several million displays were sold. After not making a display for a while, Apple returned to the market with its own Thunderbolt 3 display, the Pro Display XDR, and began shipping it in December 2020 for a minimum of $5,000.Īnd, gosh, do a lot of those older Apple monitors remain out in the field and in use. The displays started with DVI connectors, shifted to the Apple-made ADC connection, then back to DVI, expanded to dual-link DVI, pivoted to industry-standard Mini DisplayPort, and finally ended with Thunderbolt 2 connectors.
From 1999 until 2016, Apple released and continued to sell a series of external digitally connected displays optimized for Mac users.