The story keeps getting worse for Psystar, a small Florida-based startup that was selling Mac clones. In its court battle with Apple, a judg e recently found Psystar guilty of violating Apple’s copyrights. What’s more, the payoff for being a rebel was meager for Psystar: the startup sold only 768 sy stems, according to an economist App le hired to analyze Psystar’s business records.

On top of that, Psystar told investors that it projected it would sell between 1.45 million and 12 million machi nes in 2011. The small company opened shop in April 2008; Apple sued three months later. 12 million units? Talk a bout absurdly optimistic.

768 shipments is a puny number, but I’m not all that surprised. Back w hen I worked as an editor at Macworld, I remember how difficult it was for us to order a Psystar desktop for lab testing. Only after numerous attempts did our order go through; the process felt shady from start to finish. Also, I would imagine that the people who are nerdy enough to desire — and put up with — a PC hacked to run Mac OS X would take it upon themselv es to build a Hackintosh of their own (like Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel and I did with our netbooks).

Plus, I can’t imagine man y would opt to throw money at a company that’s battling Apple’s legal sharks. That circumstance brought the longev ity of Psystar, and its ability to provide customer support, into question. Psystar’s spin for investors is even more bizarre: Psystar argued that its leg al battle with Apple would frighten off other potential competitors, thus insulating its success. However, plenty of businesses offering Hackintosh solutions have emerge d throughout the course of Psystar’s fight with Apple.

ComputerWorld, the first to report this story, happened upon a slide presentation containing the shipment projections, which Psystar showed to venture capitalists in 2008. Get the f ull story there.

See Also:

Psystar ‘Rebel EFI’ Patch Installs Snow Leopard on Any PCPsystar Marches Forward With Beefy Mac CloneApple, Psystar File to Protect Secrets Before Battling in Court …Judge Dismisses Mac Cloner Psystar’s BankruptcyMac Copycat Psystar Gets Ammo to Countersue ApplePsystar: Blu-Ray Hackintosh for Sale; MacBook Clones on the Way …Psystar: Apple Is Paranoid for Alleging Conspiracy

Photo: Psystar