Outting The New XServes and Mac Pros EARLY. Hmm…

Macworld Expo is next week and it’s interesting, isn’t it, Apple chose to unveil their new line of Mac Pros and XServes today. No fanfare. No special gathering of the press. Something big is afoot – next week.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge XServe fanatic. Not because they’re so much faster than other servers, or that they’re so much less expensive. They’re not either of those and even if they were… That’s not what sells me on them. I can manage them. Me, a knuckle-headed, non-IT type. I can manage six of them and two XServe RAIDs without breaking a sweat. I’ve enjoyed it. No, really, it’s been a joy.

Now, the fact the new XServes are so much beefier than they’re predecessor and still fit in 1U of rack space is mighty nice (I’d say “cool” but I’m thinking these things must run fairly hot). I’ll be interested to learn more about the heat dissipation and the energy usage. The fact they still have the redundant power supplies, what looks to be adequate airflow and major upgrades to bus throughput, PCI expansion, memory and onboard storage is just killer. Congrats Apple. Can’t wait to get an eval unit (Oh yes, I’ll be trying my best at that one).

Back to the original line of thinking, this makes me wonder what Apple hasn’t told us. Macworld Expo is next week and these are typically the kinds of things that would rate a fair bit of stage time. Well, the MacPro at least. So, that said, there must be some serious stuff about to go on stage next week if they’re getting some of the things most consumers would consider ho-hum out of the way now. This event is now designed for maximum press coverage. XServe doesn’t get the headlines. MacPro’s don’t get the headlines.

I’m fairly certain we’re about to see a huge announcement on the UMPC, iPhone, iTunes (Beatles, yawn. Video will be big. Subscriptions/rental will be big). We’ll probably see an expansion of the iTunes Producer program soon. Independent movie and music producers/artists will be front and center soon (the long tail).

And, for my last trick, remember the scene in Star Wars Episode II where Obi Wan realizes there’s a planet missing from the library records? I have this niggling suspicion Apple’s about to whallop the Windows world with iChat. I have no insider information. It just feels right. There’s a gravitational pull there suggesting a pending event.