Apple Computer Inc.s Power Mac G4 computers are now for sale in server configurations from the companys online and retail stores, a spokesman from the Cupertino, Calif., company said today.
The servers run the Mac OS X Server 10.2 software. The basic configuration has dual 1GHz processors, a 120GB hard drive, 256MB RAM and a combination CD-RW/DVD drive. It costs $2,999, the same price as Apples base rack-mounted server, the Xserve.
Versions costing $3,499 and $4,699 both have 1.25GHz processors, and 2MB of L3 cache, versus the cheaper models 1MB cache. The $3,499 version upgrades to 512MB RAM; the $4,699 version has 1GB.
The new servers soon “will be made available” to standard retail channels, the spokesman said.
Other than the G4 being a tower design and the Xserve being a rack-mounted design, “Im not aware of any other differences,” said Giga Information Group analyst Rob Enderle, in Santa Clara, Calif.
Just as Honda built separate stores when it expanded from motorcycles to cars in the 1970s, so must Apple, he said. “A retail store is an unusual place to market a server. If youre serious about servers, youre going to have to create a server channel,” he added.
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