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Monday February 9, 2009
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 First there was Power Computing. Then Psystar. Now, there's PearC, the latest company to begin selling clones of the Apple Macintosh while tip-toeing through a legal minefield.
The difference? So far, PearC is only selling the Apple clones in Germany, using a twist on German law as an apparent shield. PearC's argument, as a spokesman for PearC's corporate parent, Hypermeganet, told Der Speigel: since Apple's Mac OS X EULA is inside the box and not able to be viewed until the box is opened, the document has no legal validity in Germany. Apparently, PearC believes that loophole allows them the right to then load the operating system on a line of... well, call them nondescript PCs. (See image, left.)
Apple has yet to comment so far.
The price of the PearC "Starter" starts at 499 euros, up through the €799 "Advanced" and €1,499 "Professioonal" models. The Starter includes a rather basic dual-core Intel 2.2-GHz E2200, while the Professional packs a 2.67-GHz Core i7 920 and a base configuration of 6 Gbytes of DDR-3 DRAM. PearC actually offers to install either Apple OS X or Windows Vista Home Premium as the base operating system; Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate are both listed as upgrades.
To date, Apple has continued its fight against Psystar, shifting the fight to copyright claims, rather than antitrust complaints.
PearC appears to have a viable PC business in addition to the Mac clone business it apparently is starting up. I suppose PearC should hope that its plum Windows business doesn't go all, erm, pear-shaped?
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