Xserve - forbidden fruit for Apple to be axed?
By Renjith VP, SiliconIndia   |   Friday, 19 November 2010, 14:49 IST
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Bangalore: Whether it is a product launch or patent war or innovative ideas, tech news is never complete without mentioning Apple every single day. But the latest mention of sacking production and sales of Xserve seems to surprise or rather dismay Apple's own enterprise and other business customers. Apple is planning to remove the Xserve server platform from the Apple Store on January 31, 2011, suggesting instead the server-oriented Mac Mini with no optical drive or the Mac Pro. The platform, introduced in 2002, allowed Apple a toehold in the heavy-duty IT world but as per Apple's point the 1U servers have proven to be slightly less energy efficient than a standard Mac Mini and, obviously, much larger. And yes, confusion, queries and bit of anger has been popping up from all corners. IT folks are confused and question the move like how do the businesses using Xserves heavily for their work flow, rack-mount 100 Mac Pro's once the Xserves become outdated or to use fiber channels with the Mini? So what was special about Xserve and what will be Apple's inconspicuous motives behind axing of Xserve? As per Ryan Faas of CW, Xserve was the first true rack-mounted server Apple produced and the only machine it ever created to a 1U specification, making it at home in the networking closet of a data center. Apple produced versions of the Xserve with both Power PC and, later, Intel chips. From an IT and engineering perspective, Xserves have been great machines that are highly configurable and offer enterprise redundancy features. They're also the only Mac models to include lights-out management. The demise of Apple's Xserve clearly demonstrates the firm's slide into the sales rat race as it purges any notions of being an innovative high technology company, says Lawrence Latif of The Inquirer. He also adds that the death of the Xserve symbolizes the death of Apple as a serious technology outfit and its emergence as a firm that is simply chasing the most commercially viable products. What's most disappointing and at least a bit surprising, given Apple's descent into padding its income statement is the way it sells itself. Many people feel that the company is again offering an inferior substitute for the product which is to an extent a meaningless and unqualified benchmark like one for a 12-core Mac Pro providing exactly the same "web server" performance as an 8-core Xserve. They also feel that the comparison between the Xserve and Apple's ghastly excuse for a server, the Mac Mini server is very hard to digest. So what has Apple got to say about this? Apple substantiates the performance shortfall by claiming that the Mac Mini is the firm's "most popular server hardware". Though it seem to be a decent argument it seems odd when we take into account the only other 'server hardware' in Apple's lineup which was the Xserve which had such dire sales that the firm decided to scrap the line altogether. "Apple is no longer trying to sneak into the enterprise market via the server room; today, it's being welcomed in the front door as a mobile device vendor. Continuing to focus on Xserve development because of a 2002 decision to sell Apple branded servers would be foolish given how much has changed since, Apple can drop the Xserve and continue to sell its Mac OS X Server product on its Mac Pro and Mac mini, meaning very little lost revenue but much lower development costs." writes Daniel Eran Dilger for AppleInsider So did Apple really sinned by eating up 'the forbidden fruit' Xserve? "Whatever happens, the show must go on" kind of attitude won't work well for Apple this time. With criticisms rising against Apple and Steve Jobs, they are in dire need to show accountability and responsibility to its loyalists.

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