Psystar Making the Antitrust Case
If you have been following the Mac news over the last couple of months, you will have no doubt heard of Psystar. Their claim-to-fame is the release of a Mac-clone hardware platform bundled with a copy of Mac OS X Leopard. This is in breach of the Mac OS X EULA, that does not permit the installation of Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware.
Apple was very initially very quiet on the matter, but responded last week when they announced they would be suing Psystar. This is the obvious reply, as Apple will look to protect their brand, which could easily get soiled with a flood of poor quality and poorly supported clones.
Psystar have now responded by hiring a team of lawyers (Carr and Ferrell) to represent them in the case. They have not made any formal statements regarding their defense, but initial hints seem to indicate it will center on the perceived anti competitive nature of the Mac OS X EULA. Considering the cost of a team of lawyers (especially with the credibility of Carr and Ferrell), they will need very deep pockets to be able to keep the case moving along.
Personally, I do not think it is a very strong case to make against Apple. Apple have a small market share (only approx. 5%), hardly worthy of claiming they are being anti competitive. Also, Apple have developed the components of Mac OS X with pricing to reflect its target is only Apple hardware. It is hardly surprising that Microsoft need to charge many hundreds of dollars for Vista (especially the Premium and Ultimate editions), as they need to recoup their substantial development and testing costs. This may be a biased opinion as I do not think it will be good for Apple and the Mac community if Apple are forced to ‘open’ the Mac OS X operating system to other hardware vendors. Would this also apply to the iPhone, should Apple be forced to release it for Nokia and Symbian platforms !?! Perhaps that is being flippant, but the analogies are endless, and I assume Apple will also make similar analogies in any response.
This will be a very interesting case to follow. We hope to being you more news as the case progresses.
Tags: Psystar
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