Mac cloner Psystar sees no reason to be

(Updated with countering statement) Mac clone builder Psystar on Friday said it was shutting down. The Florida-based company's president Rudy Pedraza said the shutdown would take effect "immediately." All eight employees of the small company have been dismissed, and the company's website is no longer functioning.

It's not expected that buyers of the clones, which included a handful of desktops based on off-the-shelf PC parts, will receive any future support.

The closure was all but necessary as a Northern District of California court judge this week issued a permanent injunction banning sales of Mac clones, gutting Psystar's core business. It had tried separately offering Rebel EFI software that would let many PCs emulate a Mac's native firmware, but the end of the company likely ends the hardware-independent effort as well.

Psystar had launched only in 2008 and pitched itself as dismantling an Apple "monopoly" on where and how Mac OS X could be installed, running hacked firmware to put the software on PCs that were often plainer but less expensive than Macs. It had tried to defend itself by claiming that Apple violated antitrust principles but was both unable to persuade judges or to use bankruptcy to delay proceedings.

Update: Another attorney representing Psystar now claims that the statements aren't accurate and that the company will resume business.

by MacNN Staff