When checking TI's website for the new TI-84 SE Pocket, I noticed that on certain versions of TI website, the regular TI-83 Plus was no longer listed (as of right now):

Asia (English): http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/ASIA/productCategory/asia_graphing.html
Australia: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/AUS-NZ/sectionHome/aus-nz_product_graphing.html

On the Germany website, it's still listed, but on the calculator page, it states that it's only available for teachers now:

http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/DEUTSCHLAND/productDetail/de_ti83p.html

The TI-83 Plus graphing calculator is only available on request as part of class orders.  Please contact if interested in your dealer .

Alternatively, we recommend the more powerful graphing calculator TI-84 Plus.  Or switch to the new TI-Nspire ™ technology!

Does anyone know if this has been like this for a while now? If it's recent, then I wonder if this means they are slowly phasing out this model in certain countries?

Same here. That one was discontinued in 2004 actually. I liked it since it was slightly faster than the older 84+ models. It typically broke faster than 83+ and 84+ models, though.

I noticed on calc sites more and more people get a 84+ instead, but over here many people still get the 83+ because the 84+ is close to $150 in Canada. Most families here have low revenues so they cannot afford anything higher than a $125 83+. (which is around $90 when school starts) I also noticed here that many people just get their bro/sis calc lent to them or buy it used, so there are still plenty of TI-82s with the TI-81 design or even TI-80s in circulation.

Some schools even import TI-82 Stats from Europe here, to save on costs to replace their old 82s.

The 83+ was always fairly stable (i'll never upgrade beyond 1.12). With the SE a lot of problems started popping up, incompatibility with certain games, etc. but the extra memory was definitely worth it. Still, i'd never consider programming a 15mhz-only program, as the 82/83/+ hold a special place in my heart. Some things, like calc84maniac's incredible emulator or some of the 3D projects which would otherwise be impossible at the slower speed/without the extra hardware of the newer calcs, i can sympathize with. But it seems to me like a lot of people use the faster speed to get away with sloppier coding. Besides, with all the newer models it seems there's so much inconsistency. Who'd of thought that wanting to stick with my trusty old 83+ would make me into an old-timer? Has so much time really passed? The only person i still see around clinging to their 82 is DigiTan

chickendude some programs may not work on 1.12, though. Check Omnicalc 1.26 for example. (It says 1.13 required on install prompt). However, some old games, especially ARPGCS, will not work fine on 1.14 or higher.

In my case I prefered to use 1.18 and 1.19, which are both pretty stable.

And yeah I agree about the sloppier coding. Of course we don't generalize about that here, especially in TI-BASIC, but some people actually use the higher speed at features advantage. For example Metroid II Evolution would not have been possible on a regular 83+ because it barely even fits in the archive and runs too slow, due to TI-BASIC limitations, but I did see racing tunnel clones on a 84+ that ran at like 2 fps on a regular 83+, because the author only tested on a 84+ and didn't bother optimizing.

In Axe I did see the same thing too: regular game clones that requires 15 MHz mode and runs too slow on a regular 83+, but then another person makes another clone of it and it runs fine on it, while having even better graphics.

But yeah I understand the feeling. I stuck with my 83+ for a long while before finally switching. The only thing that made me switch is that I got sick to death of garbage collecting every 30 second.

I wonder if we could get official word from TI about this. If, as it seems, the 83+ is being phased out, this is definitely news-worthy.
If TI is phasing it out everywhere, I feel sorry for Canada. (Maybe dropping the 83+ means they'll lower the price on the 84+(SE), though...)

I'd say we should wait until we know what the deal is for sure. As for my TI-83+s, I'm not even sure what Os versions are on them. I personally don't recall updating them. They're probably running an older OS.
Since there are a ton of 83+es still out there and still being sold, programmers should keep that in mind when making software. Afterall, if it runs on more platforms its accessible to more people.

i even did not know that they were still made.. i thought the 84+ was the new generation, a full replacement fot the83+, erasing all its footsteps

Yeah, I just mean people who wants to make games with plenty of features should not force themselves to restrict the amount of features just to allow a small userbase to be able to play the game, but otherwise people should optimize well enough.

and that's true, many people are using the 84+ already, so it doesn't really matter i think