Another Mac Clone: RussianMac

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:22am — Seth Weintraub

A new Mac clone maker, this time in Russia, has opened up shop. RussianMac (translated) has started selling Mac Clones in six varieties online. The machines look like standard PC Clones much like PearPC in Germany, Psystar in Miami or OpeniMac in Argentina.

Perhaps most interestingly, they offer a "MiniBook" that bears a striking resemblance to an EeePC (below).

OSNews notes:

The situation in Russia could prove to be even more difficult for Apple. Russia has become increasingly more protective over its own market and companies, and a big American firm suing a small Russian company might not go down well with the courts in Russia. RussianMac does use several Apple product names though, so that could certainly be a problem for them.

As time progresses, it becomes more and more unlikely that Apple will be able to put a stop to this. The Psystar case is by no means a sure win for Apple, despite America's fairly strict laws on the matter, and possible cases in Europe and Russia will only be tougher cases to crack for the Cupertino company.

Apple will have to individually sue each clone maker to put a stop to the practice, and with every country having different laws on copyright, IP, and consumer protection, this sure looks like "dweilen met de kraan open" voor Apple ('mopping the floor while the tap's still running').

That is an awesome little saying. We need to learn how to pronounce that.

( Filed Under:

Industry Intelligence

)

Comments

23.800 Eur !!!!

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:49am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

Wow,
for 23800 € you can easaly buy 8 MacPro 8 Core!!!

23.800 Euro? (Today 1 € is

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:51am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

23.800 Euro? (Today 1 € is 1,3704$)

There is a mistake, it's not

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:53am — Boubitch (not verified)

There is a mistake, it's not 23.800 EUR..... It must be "rubles", as the subtitle seems to say.

WTF 23.800 € ????

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:58am — 9to5Mac Poob (not verified)

Hahahahhaah thats about 32.500 Dollars, the price of a fully stuffed Mac Pro...

It is not going to work out

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 5:59am — Ivan (not verified)

It is not going to work out in Russia as a mass destructive weapon for Apple Computer market in this country. Most probably there will more interest from outside of Russia. This is computer for enthusiasts but not for regular customer. Knowing russians (being myself a of a slavic nature) they would prefer to have Apple hardware with Windows installed on it rather than regular computer with Mac OS X. The only explanation - it is expensive and look cool in comparison with rest of computers. Maybe you do not know yet but Russia is one of the biggest markets for luxury products in the world...

It's a typo

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 6:01am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

It's indeed a typo: the price tag says "23.800 Rub" not Euro. The junkie who posted the picture with 23kilo Euros should pass on the weed..

It is not going to work out

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 6:07am — Ivan (not verified)

It is not going to work out in Russia as a mass destructive weapon for Apple Computer market in this country. Most probably there will more interest from outside of Russia. This is computer for enthusiasts but not for regular customer. Knowing russians (being myself a of a slavic nature) they would prefer to have Apple hardware with Windows installed on it rather than regular computer with Mac OS X. The only explanation - it is expensive and look cool in comparison with rest of computers and you do not need to learn how to use . Maybe you do not know yet but Russia is one of the biggest markets for luxury products in the world...

Apple needs to do something

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 6:18am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

Apple needs to do something to tell people that these machines don't actually save them any money when buying a "mac". on top of this i'm fearing for Apple and Snow Leopard because of upcoming windows 7 (beta downloads and RC downloads have shown incredible support). maybe windows will end up stopping these clone makers.

Just wondering. Apple's been

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 7:41am — Sloan (not verified)

Just wondering.

Apple's been hiring a whole bunch of chip designers and bought at least one chip company : PA Semi.

Could Apple put custom chips (as an add on to the intel processors) so that people can't clone them?

I'm not tech savvy on the issue, just wondering.

I certainly think they'll do

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 8:15am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

I certainly think they'll do something like that if this keeps on.

These cloners are just digging their own graves, eventually if enough of them pop up Apple will start using other methods than going after each of these scam companies and do something drastic to make it much harder for them to get their hands on OS X or to hack OS X.

simple answer: No

Thu, 05/21/2009 - 4:35am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

simple answer: No

It's funny....there was a

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 8:21am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

It's funny....there was a time when having all the clone makers running your software was the goal. Apple would be smart for follow the MS game plan (they killed IBM with) that had all the clone makers running their OS...but then Apple isn't a software company, is it....it's a hardware company that puts 3rd party hardware in a cool box. I think if they were really smart, they would be a software company...dominate the market with the help of clones and a better desktop client and increase their hardware sales as a result....but what do I know.

No money in software. They've

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 8:44am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

No money in software. They've tried this approach before. Learn some apple history.

In soviet Russia, Mac Clone

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 8:25am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

In soviet Russia, Mac Clone drives self.

Apple are yet not interested in Russian market

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 8:31am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

I think it happens because there are still no .ru branch of Apple Inc.
And a price for RussianMac Pro is 23.800RUR rather than Eur

Thanks for the Yakov Smirnoff reference and...

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 8:37am — CaptPostMod (not verified)

They've hired new chip makers who are experts at designing game systems. Systems that run a very specific set of software on a very specific set of hardware.

Couple that with the new OS X not being a new cat, just a new variety of the old cat, and I think we're looking at an OS XI coming out on all new hardware with a custom chip non-PC-Intel compatible. Then we're back to the days when clone makers didn't exist because getting the PowerPC parts was not worth the effort.

Hey! did anyone else notice

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 9:08am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

Hey! did anyone else notice that the price should be in Rubles, not Euros? Just thought I'd point that out in case nobody had noticed yet. Thank you very much.

About 750 USD

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 9:31am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

About 750 USD

Interestingly, they do not

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 11:30am — Dima (not verified)

Interestingly, they do not sell systems with pre installed OS X. They just sell systems capable of running OS X.

Apple will have to

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:07pm — boediger (not verified)

boediger

for da luv of gawd Seth!!!!!!

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:29pm — Olternaut (not verified)

Please tell me this isn't the only thing you have to post today.
Its May 20th for Pete's sake! There has to be a big juicy leak out there about the tablet by now right? Will it be at the WWDC or at an later event?

What are your sources doing sleeping?