Will we ever have Mac clones?

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August 27, 2008, 10:02 AM — 

The battle between Apple and Psystar will have an easily predictable outcome. Apple will triumph of course, not because they are right, and not because they have superior technology, but because they have money and enough lawyers to bury the small Psystar and anybody else who threatens their business.

The meat of what's going on is that Apple has always held that the Apple OS is only allowed to run on Apple hardware. And because there is only one source of Apple hardware, the price of Apple computers is--due purely to market forces--double that of a Windows computer. Apple of course, wants to keep it that way.

But little Psystar isn't the only one who takes issue with that stance, and even if Psystar loses the battle against Apple (almost a sure bet), there may be some fallout for Apple in the long run.

There is of course, a school of thought that Apple is exhibiting anti-competitive behavior, and this argument shouldn't be dismissed too quickly. The courts may well take an interest in Apple in the future. And even though Psystar will more than likely get crushed, there will be others. It's time Apple re-visited its strategy, and get ready for the inevitable de-coupling of its hardware and its software.

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