A recent report by market research firm IDC gives Apple high sucker for its efforts in the Enterprise storage and server food market . While Apple is comfortably known for its iPod and Macintosh production lines , IDC analysts say the competition is starting to take interest in what Apple is doing in endeavor market , as well .

“ Their direction has been in a duet of primal vertical , especially in market like digital medium — you ca n’t go anywhere without make Apple in that market , ” IDC analyst Kelly Quinn , told MacCentral . “ They have done a really just job of penetrating that mart — some of the scientific and technical markets are a crosswalk from that because of the high - power computing aspects . ”

While Apple harmonize that their focus has been on more traditional markets like digital media , the introduction of the Xserve RAID storage system has given the company a raw set of food market to target .

“ Nobody has the penetration we ’re see in these central erect markets that are so important to Apple , but just as substantial is the non - Mac space , ” said Alex Grossman , Apple theater director of intersection management , server hardware .

Those non - Mac grocery store let in incarnate customers and other market that do not run in an end - to - end Apple environment . Grossman say that approximately 40 percent of Apple ’s Xserve foray shipments are going to non - Mac or heterogenous environments .

The intromission of new technologies is also helping the acceptance of Apple ’s Enterprise product . Apple ’s Grossman points to the development of high-definition television as one exemplar of companies that are upgrade their current facility and turn to Apple .

“ Do I corrupt something new that is proprietary , lock in and expensive ? Or do I purchase something new that is open , faster and cheaper ? That is where we see an chance , ” state Grossman .

IDC also praises Apple ’s scheme of focusing their aid on specific perpendicular markets . The investigator feel that there is still a mess of way to grow in the traditional market where Apple is currently encroach .

“ Apple is endeavor to be deliberate in picking what verticals they target , ” allege IDC psychoanalyst Natalya Yezhkova . “ For a company that has been in the market for two and half geezerhood , focusing on specific perpendicular markets is the best plan of attack . Frankly , they still have a lot of opportunity within this market place . ”

Since its introduction in February 2003 , Apple has ship 76 Petabytes of storage with its Xserve RAID systems alone . The develop popularity of Apple ’s Xserve 1U rackmount server and Xserve RAID storage products are starting to get the attention of Apple ’s Enterprise competitors . IDC says that other companies are starting to ask about Apple .

“ Yes they are and that is one of the reason they [ Apple ] are trying to be very quiet about what they are doing , ” said Yezhkova . “ Other companies are looking for any information on Apple to understand if they are competitors or partners . ”

While Apple has n’t specifically name its server products in its Intel transition announced earlier this year , IDC sees it as a positive move for the party grow Enterprise business .

“ I absolutely do not think it will hurt , ” said IDC ’s Quinn . “ It will in reality work to their benefit in the x86 server market . It seems like a very savvy move on their part . ”

IDC and Macworld are both owned by IDG .