krowmagnum
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Re:Discussion Q&A - Unauthorized Clones? - 2008/04/20 11:14
bkyle wrote:
Do you think Apple should take action against clone makers in countries with effective legal systems to protect the brand, profits, and OS? Do you think clones could help grow the Mac market by attracting customers unwilling or unable to buy an Apple branded system? Would you rather stick with the genuine Apple product or would you consider an unauthorized clone to save money even if it meant forgoing operating system support? Would you rather just build your own "Hackintosh"? Why or why not?
Interesting points... I guess it depends on which side of the retail fence you are on and if you look at short or long term effects.
From Apple's standpoint it's not good for business. The "official" clones made in the past did hurt Apple's sales. Selling the OS licenses hardly makes up for loss of hardware sales by a hardware company. It was a desperate and poor decision of Apple's CEO and board at the time.
From the consumer's standpoint it's good in the short term. If it actually worked correctly we would get less expensive Macs. But the problems begin when you try to update the OS, not to mention whatever misc. hardware driver problems.
In the long term it's bad for the consumer. Apple will loose sales of hardware and they won't have the same amount of money to develop new technology and make better toys for us to play with in the future.
And the price of Macs will go up to offset the losses. Apple is not going to eat the losses.
Personally I'm in favor of an "official" Mac licensed clone. My first Mac was a PowerComputing Powertower Pro and it arguably better than what Apple produced.
But it has to work as well as a Mac and that can only happen with Apple's blessing. And I seriously doubt that will happen anytime soon, if ever again.
I would like to see Apple produce an expandable Mac that is less expensive than the MacPro too but I don't see Apple taking that step either.
Want a cheap computer that runs OS 10.5 ? Buy a a used G4.
Or build a Hackintosh and have the same issues with updates and hardware compatibility that the x86project guys are dealing with.
One of the reasons I use a Mac is because I have very little problems with it. All of that goes out the window with a Hackintosh. No support, limited update potential and hardware nightmares is not an option for me. I need my Mac to work at 100% all the time.
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