Digital Home Thoughts: Is Windows Home Server Doomed?

"Gizmodo asked the question after Iomega announced that it was no longer going to pursue its plan of releasing a Windows Home Server product like HP’s MediaSmart Server (MSRP $749). Do you buy the explanation from Iomega that such a device is “prohibitively unprofitable” due to its cost being comparable to buying a new PC? My 2-cents: Price might be part of the reason (though other consumer-based NAS servers run about the same price for comparable amounts of storage), but I think the lack of consumer confidence in regards to stability and reports of file corruption has put a black-eye on the platform from the get-go. I don’t think WHS will get much traction in the general consumer market until OEMs get close to Apple Time Capsule’s price point of $299 for 500GB ($499 for 1TB) of storage and have all the bugs worked out."

With Iomega bailing out of their own Windows Home Server (WHS) offering, and with HP's WHS costing $749, along with the recent reports of stability and file corruption issues (problems that even our own Jason Dunn reported recently), Alexander Grundner from eHomeUpgrade asks the question, "Is Windows Home Server Doomed?"

It's essential that Microsoft fixes the stability and file corruption issues, but I like Alexander's idea to have a "lite" and "premium" version of WHS (although, I might call them "Windows Home Backup" and "Windows Home Media" respectively). Everyone should agree that it's extremely important to backup all important digital files (yet this always seems to be overlooked until it's too late), so if Microsoft could offer a version of WHS that makes it easy for non-techies to setup backups (and is down to the right price-point) I think it might be the jump-start that Microsoft is looking for in the WHS market!

Is anyone currently using a Windows home Server? If not, what's keeping you from making the purchase?