Whither X-RAID (by Apple)

We have had a number of discussions with customers on X-RAID and related systems from Apple. Apple pioneered good low cost storage. Wasn’t terribly fast, but it came in around $2-3/GB or so. Last I priced something out for a customer it was ballpark of $2.75/GB. FWIW: JackRabbit is in the low $1.x/GB. I haven’t heard much new about X-RAID recently. Then a blog I like reading had a post about iPhone.

Most everyone we know is talking breathlessly about how iPhone will suck the oxygen out of the room. Well, that may be. I haven’t seen it or looked at it yet, no I am not kidding. I haven’t had time. I do happen to be in the market for a new phone, the Motorola Q running WinCE (apt name) is horrible. This is one of many platforms (cell phone/appliances) that windows should never, ever be on. Couple this with Verizon’s propensity towards massively overcharging me, it will cost me relatively little to cancel my contract with them…. I dunno, I feel myself slipping down a slope going towards a rant of extreme investment showing highly limited return in cell phones …. Ok, back to Apple. And X-RAID. Lets stipulate iPhone will take over the world. Good for Steve Jobs and Apple. They clearly have the consumer in mind in their appliance products (though I would prefer a pure mp3 version of iPod). On the article linked above, I saw this:

Whoops. Maybe we have our answer? RIP X-RAID. Update: Ok, spent some time looking for X-RAID. The above might just be a rumor repeated N+1 times. Also spent some time looking at iPhone. Ok. Wow. Socks have been knocked off. Only downside that I can tell at the moment is that it is attached to AT&T; who don’t really have that great a coverage as compared to Verizon (nobody does). I need to think on this, as that device has everything I have been thinking of in a phone. If they could ditch or make the camera optional, it would be perfect. There are customer sites that don’t like you having a camera on your phone. They force you to leave it at security, or in your car. Thats about the only major change I can think of. IMAP email (as long as it does IMAPS I am happy). A real web browser … Does wifi. I bet SIP clients will be showing up soon. This unit is a great deal like the nice Nokia E61 I bought for my trip this past January. Worked great overseas, 3G and all that. Won’t work here all that well, Edge at best. The Nokia was nice, still have it, been considering just dropping it onto Cingular/AT&T; and switching the number there. Might need to go play with this iPhone. If it works well, I think we might have a winner.