Low End Mac's Online Tech Journal

How Old Is My Mac?

Dan Knight

It's easy to visit a site like Low End Mac and find out when a model was first produced and discontinued. But how do you determine how old a specific unit is?

Apple has a coding scheme they use in the serial number to indicate both when and where a Mac was made. This information has been published on other sites and discussed in various news groups, which is where I came by it. And I thought it would be of interest to any Mac owner. Your serial number tells what year and week of the year your Mac was made, as well as which factory built it.

Unfortunately, Apple considers this information a trade secret (despite the fact I found it on a public newsgroup). Posting this information here led to a strong letter from Michael S. Rubin, Attorney, Worldwide Sales and Service Law Department, Apple Computer, Inc.

And I can't even show you the letter!

So if you want to know how old your Apple product is or where it was built, you'll have to obtain that information somewhere other than this page. (The computer profiles on Low End Mac usually indicate a range of dates during which a model was produced.)

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