Apple cracks top-10 server brands during first quarter
Apple Inc. during the first quarter of 2007 broke into the top-10 server brands with its Xserve line, stepping over China-based Langchao, which fell from the rankings, according to the latest data from market research firm IDC.
Hitachi replaced China-based Lenovo, which joined Langchao in falling out of the top 10, according to the report.
Overall, worldwide server shipments in first quarter declined 11 percent on a quarterly basis as shipments from Dell and IBM — ranked second and third — fell 3 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Seasonal effects, Intel's schedule to cut CPU prices in July, and AMD's plans to launch its native quad-core processor (Barcelona) in the second half of 2007 are all reported to have contributed to the drop in shipments.
Apple's launching of its fifth generation Xserve with Intel Dual Core Xeon processors is said to have boosted its growth in the server sector, as several enterprises began adopting the Mac-based enterprise machines.
Although Lenovo and Langchao did not list in the top-10 brands in first quarter 2007, their shipments still held level compared to the previous quarter, according to DigiTimes' sources. Those sources added that the reason Hitachi and Apple surpassed the China-based makers was due to their large on-quarter shipment growth.
59 Comments
Way to go Apple. Now hit the top 5
It is good to see Apple is still in the game at all. Apple doesn't disclose the number of Xserves sold per quarter so it has been difficult to gauge their acceptance in this market segment. If they're growing as IDC states then that'll just spur further growth. I'm more interested now, by this news, to purchase Xserves than previously.
Leopard's new server tools will help push Apple even farther ahead in this market.
Oh yeah, my stock will be arising.
It is good to see Apple is still in the game at all. Apple doesn't disclose the number of Xserves sold per quarter so it has been difficult to gauge their acceptance in this market segment. If they're growing as IDC states then that'll just spur further growth. I'm more interested now, by this news, to purchase Xserves than previously.
It's also good to see posters on this thread who get the importance of the story.
Apple clearly gets it, as they've stuck with this market for years, regularly dedicating enough resources to keep redesigning and refreshing their servers despite shipments which sound minuscule next the rest of the product line.
10's of millions of iPods, millions of Macs and... ...thousands of Xserves. I'm too lazy to do the math, but Apple probably sells more iPods in say, an hour, than Xserves in a year.
But a small shop that decides to go all Apple may buy 3-4 Xserves -- and a hundred or more Macs they probably would not have otherwise. And who knows in the future, may add maybe several hundred iPhones. And the same thing may happen in larger shops which decide to experiment with Apple in a division or a location, or say, for their graphics, video and sound guys as opposed to their Excel addicted bean counters and Word-bound marketing mavens (who could end up running Mac Office at a later date once the Xserve has a foothold in their companies).
Further, if future (or current?) Xserves can virtualize Windows Vista Server and Leopard Server in interesting ways, businesses that have avoided Macs altogether to simplify their IT operations may take a new look, allowing Macs to actually enter those businesses in small but growing numbers.
So there are reasons -- and reasons strategic to the overall "Apple icology" why even during the leaner years this initiative remained alive and mostly well in Cupertino.
And why even game-addicted fan boys should pay at least a modicum of attention to this oft-overlooked part of the skunk works at Infinite Loop.
Leopard's new server tools will help push Apple even farther ahead in this market.
Oh yeah, my stock will be arising.
Are you basing this on something you know but we don't?