That question has cropped up more than ever since vast numbers of people who worked in office have suddenly had to shift to working from home. 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.
