Posted on 11/05/2010 4:47:51 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple on Friday added a new server option to its Mac Pro lineup Friday, with a $2,999 system that is designed to replace the Xserve hardware which will be discontinued in early 2011.
The Mac Pro Server comes with one 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor, 8GB of RAM, and two 1TB hard drives. It also has Mac OS X Server unlimited with a client license, and an ATI HD 5770 graphics card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory.
The new configuration starts at $2,999 and ships in 2 to 4 weeks. Apple's previously available quad-core and 8-core Mac Pro systems ship within 24 hours, while the 12-core model takes 3 to 5 days to ship.
The new Mac Pro Server can also be upgraded, with custom build-to-order options offering up to two 2.93GHz six-core Intel Xeon "Westmere" processors, for a total of 12 processing cores at an added cost of $3,475. Users looking for the best possible system can also add $3,400 to the price and get 32GB of RAM.
The new hardware became available Friday after Apple quietly announced on its website that it would no longer offer its Xserve rackmounted servers after Jan. 31, 2011. New Xserver orders will be accepted through that date, and the hardware will be backed by Apple's standard one-year warranty.
Apple also issued documentation aimed at helping customers transition from Xserve to Apple's remaining server options, the Mac mini Server and Mac Pro Server. Apple's guide notes that the 12-core Mac Pro with Snow Leopard Server meets or exceeds the performance of the baseline Xserve hardware.
However, while Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is much less powerful than Xserve, Apple's smallest desktop footprint has been the company's most popular server system since its introduction in the fall of 2009.
It’s like we are back to the Apple Workgroup Server days.
Apple’s extortion for spare drive caddies ($300) was criminal.
Otherwise, a great product.
I started out on a TI/994A many years ago. Programmed on VAX machines for a while and have always used P.C.’s. Last month I decided to replace an aging HP with a Macbook pro. So far, I am pretty impressed.
Owning several computers and different operating systems is my idea of diversity (that and a food court with many different restaurants).
This is a step backwards! Apple just contracted with Unisys to serve the enterprise for Macs and then they announce the discontinuation of the rack mounted U1 server solution? Sometimes Apple's left foot doesn't know what the head is doing.
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Yeah, I remember that... that was in the sugarwater salesman days... and they had so many different models of Macs (over 40, as I recall) and 140 configurations that they were hard to keep straight...
This is very interesting, but I’m sad that they’re abandoning X-Serve. I think this is a sighn that they’re going to focus on the small business market... where things like the Mac Mini server and this new Mac Pro server will be most in demand... and that they’re abandoning any attempt at the enterprise server room. At least for now. That’s a shame. But I guess they just weren’t getting enough traction.
Combine this story with these facts:
- Apple makes the majority of its money from phones and MP3 players
- Apple is moving OSX towards a more iOS-like interface/style (full screen apps, app store, icons, etc)
- Apple is trumpeting the iPad as the “computer for most people”
- Apple is expanding the Air line (curious how they’ve been reviewed as “iPads with keyboards”)
- Check out Apple’s web site: Store, Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Support. You can buy a product, get support for a product, and 4 of the remaining 5 categories are iDevice ecosystem options.
I think Apple is getting out of the traditional PC/computer business, and trying to move to an iPhone/iPad ecosystem exclusively. Creating the iPad was the first step. Moving Lion towards a more-iOS like experience was the second step; axing the servers is a third.
I bet the 4th will be paring down the MBP line to be just 15”, maybe 15” and 17”. Eliminate the 13” altogether - you have the Air instead.
The 5th would be eliminate the Mini, leave just the iMac (vertical iPad with a keyboard), and - for now, since they axed X-Serve - the Mac Pro.
Time will tell!
I was referring to the Apple Workgroup Server days... not the caddy system... sorry...
Interesting theories. But I doubt it. Mac Sales were $17.5 Billion last year and climbing. That was 27.25% of Apple's total sales. The MacBook Airs are only iPad like in that they are quick to start and light weight. They are still fully Macs.
Puget... this year’s corporate campaign at Apple is called “Back to the Mac”. Far from abandoning traditional computers, Apple seems to be in the early stages of incorporating iPad and iPhone advances INTO the Mac, and then making a stronger sales push for the desktop.
I saw in one article today that Unix has fallen to about 5% of the server market — the rest is Windows or Linux. The largest slice of that Unix share is leftover Solaris, leaving a tiny slice for OS X.
I know that’s their campaign, but look at what the campaign actually kicked off with:
- More iPad-esque laptops
- More iOS-like features in the OS
- Improvements in iTunes
I’m not saying that Apple is going to kill the entire Mac line tomorrow, but that IMHO the writing is on the wall: they’re converging on iOS-style devices as their heart-and-center of operations, and Macs are either going to move to that style or be dropped (as we see with X-serve).
Sword’s point above about Macs being 27% of their revenue is quite telling; that means 73% of their revenue came from iOS-style devices. THAT is a sea-change, and one that - from everything I can see - Apple is encouraging. From a “dollars and cents” standpoint, Apple is a phone and MP3 player company, not a computer company. That’s not meant to be derogatory, but a statement of fact - they make the lion’s share of their money right now from phones and iPods and iPads.
Macs are no longer the focus for Apple, except as a way to be a platform for their iOS-style devices, IMHO. The convergence is going to appliances and purpose-built “thin clients”, not traditional PCs.
I don’t see Apple doing away with the 13” laptop altogether, but the Macbook might not be long for this world. The 11” Air matches its price point, and feature-wise, it’s squeezed between the Air and the 13” Pro. It’s also the only plastic Mac left in the lineup, and looks increasingly out of place.
Macbooks sell really well, especially during back-to-school, so they’re probably not in a hurry to pull the plug until the Air proves it can meet that market.
The Mini isn’t going anywhere. It’s Apple’s small business server, and killing the XServe has solidified that niche. The Mac Pro definitely isn’t going anywhere — it’s the flagship workstation for serious graphics and video production work, and with Autocad returning to the Mac, there’s a whole new niche market where Apple will become a serious player.
For better than a decade now, Apple has promoted the Mac as the hub — initially with CD and DVD burning and printing as a big part, now with the ‘Net, Apple TV and iDevices as the destinations. I think they’d love a scenario where a family of five has an iMac, a Macbook Air, and a couple of iPads. The Mac and iTunes are still very much that hub.
Apple’s gazillion-dollar data center in North Carolina is a big question mark. More cloud-based services, especially full cloud-based backup, would go a long way toward making the iDevices stand alone, but Apple’s model is still to have them as a companion for the computer, preferably a Mac.
Very well put, Puget.
It's happening throughout the consumer market, not just Apple.
Apple, as usual, is a few years ahead of the rest of the industry, pushing the changes in directions they think are most innovative, cool, and let's not forget profitable to them. They've done that as long as Jobs was at the helm -- it's what he does best. Well, that and speak in over-arching hyperbole. But he's a salesman for the future, so I guess he gets to do that.
Anyway, the big Mac Pros will continue in the industries where they shine (graphics, music, video), and the laptops will continue to morph. But the enterprise desktop will successfully resist the "convergence", because it doesn't apply to the business necessities. Obviously, these consumer-oriented developments won't touch servers either. They'll affect business execs and road warriors, but that's because they're just consumers with a suit on, in this context.
Apple knew that the conventional desktop PC at home was doomed when the iPod took off. They drove the point home with the iPad. There's no surprise here whatsoever.
Nonetheless, I'm disappointed to see Apple's rack servers go bye-bye. I thought they were really rather beautiful, but I'm a technoid, so I'm not allowed an aesthetic sense. :)
I think that's more because of Apple's insistence to use iTunes, than their willful decision to make typical PCs the foundation of their company.
I bet one of the big uses for that data center is for a way to do iTunes on the cloud, thereby eliminating the need to tether to a regular PC.
With Apple, as dayglored hints at, thin is in. Not just physical size, but thin-client type devices.
However, I do believe the portable Macs will change, in ways that will surprise us. I don't have a clue what Jobs and Ive have up their sleeves at this point. But I will bet that we'll see the results in about 2 years, OS-X will undergo a sea change, and portable Macs will become something we don't expect.
And while most people will scratch their heads and wonder if Jobs has really lost it this time (remember the initial skepticism about the iPad), within a year of that announcement the industry will turn itself around and start copying -that-.
Will they run OS X Server on standard PC hardware? Will Apple become a software-only player in the server arena?
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