Psystar Apple Anti-trust Update

Sometime this week there should be news about the Apple / Psystar / Hewdell Packovo Suit countersuit

Apple is due to "Answer" Psystar's counter suit filed on August 28th  Psystars answer PDF (Groklaw article)

In case your sane and don't read 200 Apple RSS feeds a day.  A brief rundown.  Psystar is the company (by company I mean a couple of guys in their early 20s that are learning a lot right now) that started producing "Open Computers" back in April that run Mac OSX.  Apple, not pleased filed suit asking for all profits and all sold computers to be retrieved since their brand could be irretrievably damaged.  And then most recently Psystar countersued claiming that Apple is damaging consumers and them acting as a monopoly and Psystar should be able to produce computers that run Mac OSX.

In past comments we examined Psystar's argument,  but more importantly their motive (likely just greenmail, I know boring funded perhaps by their lawyer but we know not by them, They do not want to win) and a cool albeit unlikely conspiracy theory involving some of the worlds largest PC manufacturers (Hewdell Packovo).  

It would not be hyperbole to say that the face of the computer industry would change as a result  of a Psystar win in this suit however infinitesimally small the chance of that happening are.  In the mean time it is fun to follow along.

Psystar...

OK so think of this as the lunatic ramblings of a paranoid… BUT weirder things have happened.  What if Psystar , the company currently being sued buy Apple for making OSX loaded clone computers, were a front for a larger computer company testing the limits of Apples control over its computer franchise.  I know its a little crazy but follow me for a moment.  Lets say a huge computer company, lets call it Hewdell Packovo, knew that a couple of years from now 15-20 percent of the computer market were going to be running OSX.  And as a result in their desire to continue growing Hewdell Packovo wanted to make computers that would run OSX, and perhaps had even spoken this desire out loud.  What if Hewdell Packovo for reputational and balance sheet risk reasons knew that they could not challenge Apple’s User Agreements/licensing patents (you get the idea) .  What if Hewdell Packovo as a result of this knowledge were able to and with a small amount of money were able to motivate some guys to set up a company with the express purpose of taking the issue to court?  I’m Just sayin…  What if these guys had say a well funded legal defense fund?  The upside for Hewdell Packovo would be HUGE and the downside for Apple equally huge.  

The Risk, the Real risk (for Apple) here is that Apple loses.  A loss would result all PC manufacturers being able to sell PCs capable of running OSX. The likely result of which would end up being some sort of brokered licensing deal.

And if Psystar loses, Apple maintains its franchise and Hewdell Packovo is out chump change.  Again I know this is like “Three days of the Condor” type stuff but weirder stuff has happened, and as Deep Throat said low those many years ago… “Follow the money”