Why Did Apple Kill The Xserve? Because Steve Jobs Says “Hardly Anyone Was Buying Them”
Written by John Thompson on November 8, 2010 · Filed under Tech
Remember when we told you that Apple was discontinuing the Xserve just a few days ago, and replacing it with a new Mac Pro Server? According to the French website MacGeneration, a disgruntled user of the Xserve and other Apple pro apps wasn’t too happy about Apple’s decision to kill off the enterprise focused product, and decided to let Steve Jobs know exactly what he thought via email.
Surprisingly, he received a response from the CEO, and it was characteristically short and to the point. Steve’s reply? “Hardly anyone was buying them”.
According to the source, Apple was selling less than 10,000 Xserves per quarter in 2007 and 2008, which accounted for roughly 0.4% of sales at the time. Looking at those figures, you’d be pretty hard up to disagree with Mr. Jobs on this one – I guess some answers are just that simple!
If you’re a disgruntled Apple enterprise user, don’t forget that you can opt to buy the new Mac Pro Server instead, which is shipping in 2 to 4 weeks with OS X Server, and starts at £2399.
Source: MacGeneration via 9to5Mac
Well I’m not a die-hard Apple fan or anything, but I do kinda try and keep up to date with Apple news and products….and yet I’ve honestly never heard of this before!
If the Apple TV is still just a hobby to Steve Jobs, this Xserve must have been really low down on the priority list…or perhaps the margins are just better on the Mac Pro Server? ;)