TMO Reports - IDC Sees Continued Growth in Server Market for Apple

by , 6:10 PM EDT, September 27th, 2005

On the heels of Apple's recent announcement that it has increased the storage capacity of its Xserve 3U RAID storage system, IDC analysts Kelly Quinn and Natalya Yezhkova issued a brief one-page report summarizing their positive reaction to the news.

While Apple doesn't put as much hoopla into its efforts in the enterprise space as it does in the consumer and professional graphics and video markets, the IDC analysts see the company making positive incremental steps in the right direction. They told The Mac Observer that it was important for Apple to not only raise storage capacity from 5.6TB to 7TB but to also keep its solutions at the same price point.

"This is related to digital media," noted Ms. Quinn, "which applies across many markets, such as medical imaging, where Apple is a strong player."

Apple introduced the original Xserve 1U rack-mount server in May 2002 and followed that up with the Xserve 3U RAID storage system in February 2003. Since then, Ms. Quinn said that she has seen "a long-term approach" from the company, one that "is evolving; I don't see them as one of the top players in the near future." She noted IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sun among the top companies that Apple could eventually find itself up against in the server arena.

Apple hasn't said much about how the move to Intel processors will impact the Xserve. Asked for her thoughts on the matter, Ms. Quinn replied: "It was a good decision to switch to Intel. It's well-accepted in the x86 market, and it will enable Apple to leverage economies of scale."