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Nov 30

Mac Cloner Psystar Sold Fewer Than 1,000 Hackintoshes

Posted in: Apple, desktops, Hacks, Mods and DIY, Law, Today's Chili

The story keeps getting worse for Psystar, a small Florida-based startup that was selling Mac clones. In its court battle with Apple, a judge recently found Psystar guilty of violating Apple’s copyrights. What’s more, the payoff for being a rebel was meager for Psystar: the startup sold only 768 systems, according to an economist Apple hired to analyze Psystar’s business records.

On top of that, Psystar told investors that it projected it would sell between 1.45 million and 12 million machines in 2011. The small company opened shop in April 2008; Apple sued three months later. 12 million units? Talk about absurdly optimistic.

768 shipments is a puny number, but I’m not all that surprised. Back when I worked as an editor at Macworld, I remember how difficult it was for us to order a Psystar desktop for lab testing. Only after numerous attempts did our order go through; the process felt shady from start to finish. Also, I would imagine that the people who are nerdy enough to desire — and put up with — a PC hacked to run Mac OS X would take it upon themselves to build a Hackintosh of their own (like Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel and I did with our netbooks).

Plus, I can’t imagine many would opt to throw money at a company that’s battling Apple’s legal sharks. That circumstance brought the longevity of Psystar, and its ability to provide customer support, into question. Psystar’s spin for investors is even more bizarre: Psystar argued that its legal battle with Apple would frighten off other potential competitors, thus insulating its success. However, plenty of businesses offering Hackintosh solutions have emerged throughout the course of Psystar’s fight with Apple.

ComputerWorld, the first to report this story, happened upon a slide presentation containing the shipment projections, which Psystar showed to venture capitalists in 2008. Get the full story there.

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Photo: Psystar