Clones to the left of us, jokers to the right

Psystar OpenPro with Mac OS X.

Once upon a time Apple licensed clone makers. That only ran while Steve Jobs was away. Once he was back at the helm, the well-specced cheaper Mac clone makers were shut down.

Lately, plucky Psystar of Florida had a pretty good go at it, but this was clearly not an Apple licensed venture. Consequently, Psystar suffered the wrath of Apple. Despite a name I never knew how to pronounce ('per-sist-star' might be the most fitting), the company has just filed for bankruptcy.

I don't think Psystar's sales were ever high, but that's not what killed 'em. It was the expensive litigation process that nailed the coffin.

What was a Psystar? The firm's 'OpenMac' (the name later changed to OpenComputer) was, in fact, a generic PC tower fitted with components similar to the Mac mini's. The configuration allowed Psystar to install OS X Leopard without patching by means of an EFI emulator.

Apple was angry, not just because of the use of 'Mac', but also because Apple's OS X license clearly states that "You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labelled computer, or to enable others to do so."

Psystar's OpenComputers had Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz processors, 250GB hard drives and 2GB RAM. Yet they cost just US$399 (about NZ$623). Compare that to an Apple Mac mini which, in New Zealand, starts at $1398 - and that's for a 2GHz, 120GB HD and 1GB RAM!

Going by that comparison, you'd think the Psystar systems would have sold in buckets. It also shows you the premium Apple can charge for a machine, even if an Apple badge does guarantee component unification and quality.

In fact, the company's Mac clone was so popular in the US, its site went down hours after it opened for business. Why? because it was overwhelmed with orders.

Psystar later added an up-specced tower called an OpenPro, also with Mac OS X installed. This sold for US $1154.99, about NZ $1803.69. The OpenPro could hold up to 4TB of raw storage, used Intel Core2Quad 3.16HGz processors, shipped with 8 GB RAM plus a 1TB 7200rpm hard drive. Impressive. The monitor was extra, of course, driven by the onboard NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 512MB PCI-Express video card (the detailed specs are here.

Need I point out that here, the Mac Pro starts at $5599 with a 2.66GHz quad-core processor, 3GB RAM and a 640GB hard drive.

Apart from the way-better case and Apple's vaunted design, that's a big difference in both spec and price.

However, on May 26, 2009, Psystar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Apparently, despite considerable indicators of success, it appears the court bills were staggering. The bankruptcy filing has slowed down Apple's legal manoeuvring, but I'm sure we'll hear more.

Several other things have been proved along the way, though:

1/ People will go out of their way to buy cheap 'Macs'.

2/ Some people really don't care about integrated hardware quality and design.

3/ There is a market for cheap Macs. Most definitely. (The mini was once a cheap Mac, up until a few months ago.)

4/ Don't mess with Apple.

However, this case hasn't stopped others having a go. Quo Computer plans to open an actual retail location selling Mac clones. (Psystar was online-only). This will be on June 1st.

Quo intends to offer three desktop systems: the Life Q, Pro Q, and Max Q. While details of the components are not yet available, the firm is looking at Apple's system configurations for guidance. Founder De Silva has been a Mac user since 1984. He wants Quo to help switch PC users to the Mac, he says, and feels that ultimately, it will help Apple increase its market share.

"We are trying to stay as close to Apple as we can with our products," Quo founder Rashantha De Silva told CNET News. "We are trying to mimic things as much as we can. I'm hoping that Apple sees the value in what we are doing."

Yeah, right.

Apple was not immediately available for comment. I sense the Death Star's engines are being warmed up....

Mark Webster mac.nz

Pictured above: Psystar OPenPro with Mac OS X