Psystar to investors: We’ll sell up to 12 million in 3 years
Back in 2008 after its legal woes with Apple began, Psystar, seller of Mac clones, was seeking out the support of investors in an effort to secure $24 million to continue development, expansion and “compete directly against Apple.” The reason that Psystar was seeking such a large amount of funding had to do with its sales projections which were clearly not grounded in reality. According to ComputerWorld:
Under its conservative projections, Psystar told investors it would sell 70,000 computers in 2009, 470,000 systems in 2010 and 1.45 million machines in 2011. The firm’s aggressive growth model, however, put those numbers at 130,000, 1.87 million and 12 million during 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.
The projections were ludicrous considering that we now know Psystar only sold 768 desktops from April 2008 to August of 2009, so just what was it that Psystar hoped was to be such a big seller? It’s vaporware “OpenBox” notebook which the company has been promising since August of 2008 that never materialized. Specs were to include a 13.3″ display, 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive and retail for $699. Of course Psystar is probably never going to get the chance to sell its OpenBook (if it ever pops its head up) considering that a judge has already agreed its in violation of the DMCA as well as Apple’s copyrights. Both sides are due in court on December 14th to make their opening arguments in a new lawsuit in which Apple is seeking an injunction against all future sales.
This comment has been seriously disliked. Click here to see.
Disliked.
-12
Yawn.
“Tony wrote: At the end of the day, they have no way to justify selling a computer for 2 or 3 times the price of a PC.”
I dunno Tony, Apple seems to need to personally justify it to you, or at least you feel that is so.
Seriously folks, NO ONE has to justify their prices, not Runco for it’s MBX-1, not Neorest for it’s toilet. not Zuber’s hand printed wallpaper, not Falcon Northwest: a computer maker who’s mere computer paint jobs can cost 1,400 let along the machine itself, not Scandia Down and it’s incredible $500 pillows and so on and so forth.
Once again, NO ONE has to justify what it’s good cost to you or anyone else. It just begs of your personal self importance to feel that such things have to be justified to your standards
Take a step back and logically think through what you’re saying, comprehend it.
Liked.
+7
Pystar is selling Apple’s IP and making a profit without giving Apple it’s cut. That’s illegal…bar none. Even if you don’t agree with the pricing or schrewd techniques that Apple doesn business…they have EVERY right to protect their IP.
Liked.
+18
This comment has been seriously disliked. Click here to see.
Disliked.
-18
My Ghod Tony, that has to be one of the most stupid and illogical replies I’ve read this month!
You REALLY need to read groklaw’s coverage of this case because you very clearly have not the slightest idea as to what you’re talking about, either from a settled law or ethics standpoint.
@Tony:
You wrote: “So if I buy a Mac and then sell it to my brother for more than I paid, then Apple should get a cut?”
That’s a transfer of the license. If I were to buy Windows and then sell it to someone else (without making a copy or installing it on my computer), that’s legal.
What we’re talking about here is the unlicensed distribution of Mac OS. Maybe you don’t agree, but Judge Alsup ruled in agreement with Apple.
As far as what Apple charges for its systems, there’s no question that their computers are solid and “they just work”. I use PCs with Windows & Linux all day long at work, but at home I have two Mac’s (and I occasionally run Windows 7 on via Parallels, if I have a want or need to).
BTW, try pricing an HP or Dell configured *exactly* with the same spec’s as a Mac (meaning same processor, same video, same memory, same ports, equivalent software as iLife, same everything), and you’ll quickly find out that any name-brand PC will cost as much – or even more.
I was a skeptic for many, many years. But I did the homework, and I’ve experienced the difference. Perhaps you should, too.
Hotly Discussed
+3
This comment has been seriously disliked. Click here to see.
Disliked.
-16
You need to have the right to own a license in the first place. Plus, that license actually has to be valid in order for you to transfer it.
Besides, it should be said that there really aren’t any “retail” versions of OS X. Everything is an upgrade copy, since it basically requires that you have a Mac which has OS X already installed on it in the first place!
Liked.
+14
This comment has been seriously disliked. Click here to see.
Disliked.
-15
I just bought an HP desktop for my mother, 4 GB RAM, 2,5 GHz processor, 500 GB HDD, ATI GPU… 400 €.
A similarily specced Mac Mini costs 749 €, that’s 87 % more !
Hotly Discussed
+2
psystar has good confidence
Okay, before we start mucking up the waters with the windows vs mac war; we need to establish that the debate here is whether Pystar has the right to sell Apple’s OS on their machine. The simple answer to that is no. It’s not the same as buying a mac and reselling it. It’s not the same as buying a copy of Windows and installing it onto a custom built pc and selling it. It is the blatant misuse of Apple’s OS (their IP) and profiting from it.
The closest connection you can make is if I write a book, produce it myself, and sell it for $100 a copy, you then take my book, make a word for word copy, use my name and title, and start producing your own copies to sell for $30 a copy. Am I over charging for my book? That’s up to the consumer. If you believe I am, does that give you the right to sell a copy of my book for cheaper without signing some sort of agreement with me, let alone allowing me to profit from my own book? NO.
Liked.
+12
I’m no defender of Pystar, but in this case they were actually buying a copy of OSX for each machine they sold. So your plagiarism argument isn’t really the same thing.
Apple really should just make the OSX installer check for a previous version or an OEM disc that is only sold with an Apple computer. It seems to me that would solve their issue. Circumventing that sort of protection should clearly be seen as hacking and illegal to anyone.
This comment has been seriously disliked. Click here to see.
Disliked.
-8
This comment has been seriously disliked. Click here to see.
Disliked.
-8
I hate both comapnies, Apple for it’s high prices and Psystar slighly less for stealing from Apple.
why dont u elaborate jt, instead of making some general ass condescending statement…
With less than one thousand computers sold, where are they getting the money to fight Apple on this? Regardless, Psystar is wrong in doing this and I hope they finally go out of business.
Liked.
+7
there is nothing wrong with competition but you must have the legal right to install the OS which Pystar does not.
This is going to come fown lawyers to duke it out based on fair use in which Pystar’s legal crew will use linix and windows as examples. This will probably boil down the anti-competive arguments. So it will be up to the judge to decide if Apple is playing in that realm.