No one actually seems to know.
In the wake of the world's discovery earlier this week of its Open Mac, a white-box PC that can allegedly run Apple's Leopard OS X operating system, violating Apple's user agreement and potentially provoking its wrath, system builder Psystar has left a mysterious trail in what's become a cat-and-mouse hunt for the origins of the Miami-based company and whether it actually exists in the first place.
The morning after reports of the Open Mac surfaced, the computer's name had changed to Open Computer.
Then people started digging and found the company had seemingly materialized out of thin air last weekend even though the domain name had been registered back in 2000, according to published reports.
Reporters from a variety of publications made inquiries and some attempted to find the company at the address listed on its Website. However, they say that in the past week the address has changed several times, prompting Psystar to post on its Website:
"We're in the process of moving to a new location which is now listed on our contact page. The first new address posted (10481) was in error and our correct address is 10475 NW 28th Street. PSYSTAR was, prior to this past week, not ready to handle the enormous production capacity demanded by the online community. Due to the incredible response we have now expanded to a larger commercial unit to handle the supplies and assembly of Open Computers."
While I'm not familiar with the Miami market, last time I checked it took longer than 24 hours to acquire commercial real estate.
The company also claims its merchant gateway stopped taking orders yesterday and that further orders of the Open Computer would be processed by Paypal:
"Midday yesterday our store was not receiving any orders. This was due to the fact that our merchant gateway, Powerpay, dropped the ball on us and refused to process any more transactions from our company. We have reverted to Paypal until we can find a high-volume merchant. Apparently Powerpay was not ready to handle the community's demand for Open Computing," reads Psystar's site.
Psystar also says that because of unexpectedly high demand, customers would currently wait 10 to 12 days for an Open Computer, prompting rumors that the company, whose Web presence just recently emerged, is actually a one-man at-home shop with a good idea run amok or a scam.
While Psystar's online store carries products from other vendors, including Cisco, its terms of service, to which buyers must agree to complete online orders, tell users this:
"When you purchase an OpenMac you understand that you are not purchasing a computer made by Apple Computers, Inc. You understand that Apple Computers does not support the OpenMac in any capacity and that they may not approve of your usage of the OpenMac. In the same token Psystar does not guarantee that each and every program and feature will not operate correctly as the OpenMac is not supported by Apple Computers. Psystar does not support the OS X operating system. All copies of OS X sold by Psystar are legitimately licensed and purchased from Apple Computers and are not pirated in any way. Psystar does not guarantee that any of your peripherals, Apple-related or not, will function correctly. Psystar will not be responsible for your usage of the OpenMac in any way."
Buyer beware?
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