Zowch. According to Computerworld, Mac Clone-maker, Psystar, never got close to its investor estimates of 70,000 – 130,000 machines for 2009. Their estimates of millions and tens of millions for 2010 and 2011 respectively would then seem a little off the mark as well.
Under its conservative projections, Psystar told investors it would sell 70,000 computers in 2009, 470,000 systems in 2010 and 1.45 million machines in 2011. The firm’s aggressive growth model, however, put those numbers at 130,000, 1.87 million and 12 million during 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.
In fact, an economist hired by Apple found that it might not have even reached the 1,000 computer mark from April 2008- August 2009.
“Psystar produced incomplete financial records,” Dr. Matthew Lynde, who works as an economics consultant for Cornerstone Research, said in a declaration submitted to Alsup on Monday. After digging through invoices, purchase orders and other documents, Lynde was able to pinpoint only 768 sales of machines with Mac OS X pre-installed. “Psystar has not challenged my analysis of its financial records,” Lynde added.
Strangely, Psystar also thought that their litigation with Apple would insulate them from competition from other would-be cloners.
