The Miami-based company claims to be "reinventing the wheel" with its Open Computer, formerly called OpenMac -- for $399.99. Psystar tapped into efforts known as the OSx86 Project, and its goal of running OS X on a PC have been realized. Even the latest releases of OS X can run on PC hardware , Psystar said, but compatibility can be an issue.

"Why spend $1999 to get the least expensive Apple computer with a decent video card when you can pay less than a fourth of that for an equivalent sleek and small form-factor desktop with the same hardware," the company's Web site says.

Challenging Apple

Apple has made it clear that Open Computer violates the Leopard end-user license agreement (EULA). The agreement forbids installation of the operating system on third-party hardware. Apple CEO Steve Jobs may have taken the violation personally, suggested Ilan Barzilay, a member of the litigation practice group at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

"When Jobs left the company in the 80s, there were internal struggles about how to keep the company profitable and how to increase market share. Apple decided to take the Windows route and license the operating system, and we saw Apple clones," Barzilay recounted. "When Steve Jobs took control of Apple again, he cut that off."

Now, news reports indicate that Psystar is challenging Apple's EULA. The company is using the "unfair monopoly" card, claiming Apple overcharges for its hardware and its EULA might not hold up in court. Legal analysts said the dispute could ultimately wind up in a federal court.

Is Apple Running a Monopoly?

Making the case for an Apple monopoly will be tough, Barzilay said. Antitrust issues are typically decided by defining the relevant market. If Psystar manages to convince the court that the relevant legal market is people running OS X, then that could fly.

If you define the market as personal computers, on the other hand, Apple's market share compared to Windows machines is still small. Apple's U.S. PC share is up 32.5 percent in the first quarter, but that still only gives Apple 6.6 of the total market, according to Gartner. (continued...)

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