Why are XServes not shown in Apple stores?

[mlts22]

Why does Apple not show off its most expensive hardware offering in the stores? It would be nice to see a demo of an XServe doing some various server-specific tasks and such. Or perhaps even showing it off as a workstation in a musician's rack.

The XServe would be a top notch machine for a music studio. It packs a lot of power into 1 rack unit of space, has available hardware RAID, the latest generations (IIRC) are very quiet, and the small Flash drive can be used for the OS.

 

[Ap0ks]

The markets that buy servers wouldn't normally go to a shop to buy them, more likely from a reseller or direct

Also in retail terms I would imagine they wouldn't get much of a return on the space they'd have to dedicate to XServes, would be much more profitable to use the space for iPhones/MacBooks.

 

[Winni]

Why does Apple not show off its most expensive hardware offering in the stores? It would be nice to see a demo of an XServe doing some various server-specific tasks and such. Or perhaps even showing it off as a workstation in a musician's rack.

The XServe would be a top notch machine for a music studio. It packs a lot of power into 1 rack unit of space, has available hardware RAID, the latest generations (IIRC) are very quiet, and the small Flash drive can be used for the OS.

You're in the wrong movie. You're describing the typical task for a WORKSTATION class computer, thus Music studios are supposed to purchase Mac Pros, not XServes.

And what server tasks do you want to show off in a store that would not bore a visitor to the Death? Servers perform BACKGROUND tasks. There's really nothing to see there, except for a noisy piece of hardware.

Besides, this entire server business is not really on top of Apple's priority list. In case you haven't noticed it over the last couple of years, the entire computer business is no longer among Apple's priorities. Mobile gadgets and the iTunes store supply chain are.

 

[mizzouxc]

Why does Apple not show off its most expensive hardware offering in the stores? It would be nice to see a demo of an XServe doing some various server-specific tasks and such. Or perhaps even showing it off as a workstation in a musician's rack.

The XServe would be a top notch machine for a music studio. It packs a lot of power into 1 rack unit of space, has available hardware RAID, the latest generations (IIRC) are very quiet, and the small Flash drive can be used for the OS.

Most retail customers aren't into buying servers. I don't know many consumers that have a 19" rack in their house either. Besides they're loud.

Most people who need that sort of thing will just buy it online and wait a day to get it via mail. In addition, the stock config for people buying the units is unlikely to be used. BTO is the name of the game for them.

 

[SingaporeStu]

The stuff you're thinking of doing is better served by the Mac Pro range. The Mac Pros have connectors for music that the XServes don't.

The XServes are on the Apple Business Store, not on the regular consumer store.

Typically, though, they are ordered through System Integrators, BTO'd and bundled with servicing & support packages (usually cheaper than Apple's). Especially if its being set up to run a SAN. Not everyone wants Apple's SAN solutions.

 

[mlts22]

It would be nice to see Apple put more attention into machines like this. Apple isn't an "enterprise" company, but if they can get businesses to be completely Mac-ified with the core infrastructure running on Apple hardware, it would bring in more revenue than a ton of toys sold ever would. I am sure that businesses who want a "one stop shop" for support would love to have just one person to call and scream at (instead of multiple vendors all pointing fingers at each other) if something happened. A good number of individuals can completely rely on Apple for their hardware, OS, software, and even their applications (iWork, Logic Express, etc.) If Apple expanded this a bit to include SMBs, this might be highly lucrative, as well as helping them diversify.

For example, if Apple could get with some developers and make a drop-in replacement for Exchange. A lot of businesses need Exchange, and with that comes Active Directory, and with that, a large MS investment. If Apple could have something that does 100% of what Exchange does (syncs to phones, remote wipes, push E-mail, archiving, pop/imap/smtp, integration with voice mail and VoIP, and mailbox replication), and can offer 24/7/365 support, I'm sure Apple would capture a very high profit market without having to fundamentally change their business.

As for the demos with rendering, I 100% agree that server side tasks are boring. This is why one does something that might catch the eye with the machine.

 

[hakuryuu]

As for an Exchange alternative, there is always Kerio Connect. I haven't used it but at least when checking off features between the two Kerio at the very least appears to match Exchange. Top it off with much lower costs and Kerio is great and runs on multiple OSes.

I don't think that Xserves belong in the store for the same reason there is often only one or two Mac Pros in the store. They aren't what your average consumer is looking for when they walk in. Would it be neat and/or cool to see all that enterprise hardware (some xserves and a few RAIDs in an enclosure) in the store? For people like us, sure. The only positive I can see is that it may change people's perceptions of Apple a little when they see a machine that clearly means business.

 

[Sun Baked]

All the quiet machines in the store, and then you put out a loud-noisy Server to drown out the customers.

On second thought, works for me...

 

[mlts22]

All the quiet machines in the store, and then you put out a loud-noisy Server to drown out the customers.

On second thought, works for me...

True. XServes are server machines to happily hum away in a data center. However, this seems to be one product that Apple seems not to be really pushing as much as they should. The box is solid server grade hardware (as good as the Cisco rack x86 machines), and OS X is just as good as other UNIX operating systems for running Oracle and other backend apps.

Maybe Apple can sell a decent enclosure that dampens the fan noise but still provides ample cooling. I could see a SMB buying something like that as a departmental or workgroup server, especially coupled with a decent SAN.