Apple has officially announced that beginning January 31^st 2011 it would stop selling rack-mount Xserve servers, and instead develop more new models. Company has not given any exact reasons for withdrawal of this server platform, although it is obvious that it could be the low demand for them. In terms of sales Apple servers are far behind the other leading brands. In a document published on the Apple website, the company said that customers can buy XServe on order till Jan. 31, 2011 with one year warranty. The company promises to comply fully with its obligations under the warranty program and extended support.

Company wants to replace Xserve computers with Mac Pro or Mac mini running on Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server.

Apple launched Xserve in May 2002. The very first models were equipped with single or dual PowerPC G4 processor 1 or 1.33 GHz. In 2004 the models with PowerPC G5 were released, and since November 2006 processors Intel Xeon were used in XServe. Last update in the series occurred in April last year when Xserve were loaded with Intel Xeon Gainestown processors.

Apple in recent times has been intensively focusing on the promotion of client devices, and cloud computing that make Xserve an ‘alien’ in the range of the company, so the decision to terminate its development fits into its strategy. After all, everything in this world comes to an end.

As of today, the company sells only two different types of servers – Xserve with single chip Xeon 2.26 GHz, and a version with two processors.