Yes, very hard to justify when a high-end 4-core Xeon outperforms on some benchmarks[0] and costs half as much or less. Not to mention vastly mature open source floating point, compiler, etc, support. As well as existing (invalid, but still) programs that assume x86isms.
Most POWER8 stuff does seem to be in the "contact us" category. The only reference point I know of is that Tyan has (had?) a reference platform for 2850 USD, but that's basically beta quality and not intended to be production hardware.
It will be great if Dell / HP / Cisco / Lenovo others start forging some POWER gear ..
For a platform to succees, it should provide low barrier of entry - may be a low capacity P9 system at a low cost ~ 1K ? Will be a better strategy for OF.
I know Power is targeting cloud computing applications, but IBM should consider low cost entry level gear for getting some market share at the lower level which can transition to higher margin markets .
