Psystar plans antitrust suit against Apple, can have immense impact

Psystar, the company that was recently in the news for selling PCs running Apple’s Mac OS X, is planning to go after Apple with an antitrust lawsuit. Apple filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Psystar over the latter’s computers being sold with the Leopard operating system in July. Apple’s EULA for the OS disallows running it on non-Apple hardware.

Psytar and its attorneys from Carr & Ferrell maintain that Apple’s EULA qualifies for an antitrust suit. They claim that their Mac-clones cost about one-quarter to half of Apple branded systems and also charges that Apple marks up the hardware cost by as much as 80%.

This case is of mighty significance to the entire computing community. Most people are of the opinion that there is really no case against Apple and that Psystar will not even stand a chance in a court of law. But what if Psystar actually wins? The ramifications are manifold. For one, other vendors like HP and Dell would be able to offer systems running Apple’s Mac OS on hardware that is definitely going to be less expensive than Apple’s. The difference in price between an Apple branded system and a similarly configured PC is quite substantial. This difference in cost can be justified to a great extent through the bundling of Apple’s Mac OS software and other tools that are much more superior to what Microsoft offers on PCs.

Psystar’s win will allow consumers to experience the elegance and performance of Apple’s OS at a more affordable price. Hardware vendors like HP,Dell will offer more choices for the consumers on the OS front. For Apple, though it will see drops in sales of its computers, its bound to register a huge if not exponential demand for its operating system. This demand can very well offset the loss it can suffer in dwindling hardware sales. Apple’s hardware will still see reasonable demand due to its superior design aesthetics and novel features. Also Apple can potentially reach a dominant position in the field of desktop computing thus dealing a deadly blow to Microsoft. The biggest impact will be on Microsoft. The company has already lost a large market share to Apple due to its disasterous Windows Vista OS. If Mac OS becomes available on PCs, Microsoft may have to rethink its entire business strategy since it would have lost its hegemony in the desktop market. Maybe they are going to come up with much much better products that can challenge the Mac OS.

Though Apple devotees will definitely root for a win for Apple, a win for Psystar has the potential of ushering in a refreshingly new era in desktop computing. Its going to be interesting.