Psystar's claim against the 'Apple monopoly' dismissed

Judge William Alsup of the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of California ruled today that Apple is not not using anti-competitiveness in its use of Mac OSX. This is a major setback for the chances of Psystar to win their lawsuit with Apple.

But what are they fighting for anyway? The right to sell computers that run MacOSX? Dell and HP do this. In fact every PC manufacturer in the world does to some extent. With a USB dongle or some BIOS modifications, most PCs with the proper drivers can become a Mac.

No, Psystar is fighting for the right to bundle their computers with OSX from the shop. That means when you get your PC, it comes with MacOSX already on it. If they win their case (which seems pretty unlikely at this point) they'll be able to become an Apple clone vendor like Powercomputing or Motorola or UMAX did before Steve Jobs took over Apple again in 1997. But at the same time, so will Dell, HP and the rest if the precedent is set.

As things stand, even if you get a machine from Psystar, you have to hope that an upgrade from Apple in the future doesn't destroy your Hackintosh. Even if Psystar wins, Apple could decide to 'accidentally' break the OS like they did with jailbroken iPhones (not to say it wasn't really accidental - but you get the point).

Psystar's build to order machines seem pretty unremarkable otherwise. They are more expensive than comparably equipped Dells, even with the cost of a copy of Leopard removed. They advertise their ability to be open to Linux, Windows and MacOS. But really, every computer is.

The biggest post lawsuit problem for Psystar is that there really isn't a big market for Psystar's machines. People with plenty of money will buy Apples. People on a budget with tech skills will buy a cheaper Hackintosh made from parts at newegg.com or Frys or from Dell.

People on a budget without technology skills are the only target market. But these people have to know that Apple could cut them off from software updates at any time. If their hard drive crashes, they'll unlikely be able to load the OS again. Therefore, psystar is a very risky proposition currently.

If Psystar does win the case, HP, Dell and the others will be able to bundle their cheaper machines with MacOSX, thereby edging Psystar out of the one part of market it has been trying to sell to.

So what's the upside for Psystar?