Psystar files for bankruptcy

HACKINTOSH MAKER Psystar has seemingly gone belly up, according to documents published by ZDNet, and it couldn't have happened at a more convenient time for the company.

In fact, Psystar might have viewed its filing for Chapter 11 as a clever way to dodge having to pay damages to Apple, if it lost its court battle, in which it potentially stood to lose many millions to the Cappucino outfit.

But maybe not, for surely it must have been advised that its bankruptcy filing might, or possibly might not, merely delay Apple's lawsuit. After all, the bankruptcy court could lift the automatic stay if petitioned to do so and let the lawsuit proceed. In any case, Apple's lawsuit will simply resume if and when Psystar ever manages to emerge from its bankruptcy.

On the other hand, the protection offered by the filing might result in some potentially quite embarrassing blowback for Psystar's backers - if indeed they haven't already disappeared without a trace - as all may be revealed eventually during the course of the company's bankruptcy proceedings, though possibly not at its first court hearing on June 5th. However, that may still be interesting.

Unfortunately, all attempts to contact the company, or even understand why it continued to take orders from customers, apparently have been unsuccessful.

Considering Psystar has fallen seriously into debt over the course of its short existence, with hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the IRS, logistics providers and other creditors, it doesn't really come as a great surprise that it's shutting its doors - at least temporarily, but likely permanently, we reckon.

Some will surely feel there's been a great loss here, others will see an opportunity to press forward with the case for Apple OS X licensing to third parties - which we believe is a matter of when rather than if - but mostly the taste of rotten apples may just go away.

Other Mac clone makers like our very own FreedomPC in the UK might want to review their play books. µ