Apple cloner Quo to open retail store
Quo computer, a manufacturer of Mac clones, is planning to become the first Apple imitator to open a retail store to sell its product, with a storefront opening June 1 in the Los Angeles area.
The Mac clone maker is pushing the envelope, opening what may be the only clone showroom in the United States. To date, Mac cloners have peddled their wares exclusively on the Web, according to a CNET article. Rashantha De Silva, Quo founder, said, “It’s exciting. We are trying to stay as close to Apple as we can with our products. We are trying to mimic things as much as we can. I’m hoping that Apple sees the value in what we are doing.”
That does not seem likely. Apple’s standard reaction to Mac cloning operations is lawsuits, very vigorously pursued. There is no reason to think that the Cupertino manufacturer’s reaction is going to be any different in the case of Quo, with or without a retail store. We are just a few months removed from the debacle of clone maker Psystar, a company that this week filed for bankruptcy after Apple sued them into the Stone Age.
Quo knows the story. De Silva says, “They probably will (sue us). There are others doing this, but we have a different attitude. There are thousands of people in the ‘Hackintosh’ market, but many of them are creating bad products. I don’t think anyone wins in that environment.” It is very likely that Apple will have a different opinion than does Quo.
The law, or at least the contract, in Mac clone cases seems very cut and dried. You simply cannot do what Psystar did, or what Quo is planning on doing, contractually. Apple’s OS X end user agreement is quite clear. It says, among other things, “This license allows you to install, use, and run one (1) copy of the Apple software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use, or run the Apple software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.”
It is difficult to see how Quo can fare any better than Psystar did, or any other aggressive Mac cloner has. Quo will open, Apple will sue, and Quo will be forced out of business. A certain Jim Croce song comes to mind, the one which contains the lines, “You don’t tug on superman’s cape, You don’t spit into the wind.” That is exactly what Quo is doing, regardless of their attitude on quality or customer service. They are messing around with Jim.
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May 30th, 2009
“This license allows you to install, use, and run one (1) copy of the Apple software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use, or run the Apple software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.”
Just get a white sticker, write “Apple” on it and put the sticker on the machine. Voila, Apple-labelled computer, meets their dictated ultimatum perfectly. (It’s not an agreement when one side dictates the terms).