Interview with a PearC Representative

Since last February, we know PearC as a Germany-located company distributing PC hardware running Mac OS X. They purchase Mac OS X licenses (at full price) from Apple, and then select the right hardware components to offer fully compatible models. So far, the company was only offering its products in Germany, butthey opened new distribution channels in Benelux (Blegium, Nederland and Luxembourg) and France last Monday.
The website appledifferent.com could interview Eckhart Covent, the reseller in charge of distributing PearC hardware models in those 4 new countries (covering around 100 millions customers). Hereafter is the summary and our analysis of this report.

One of the interesting points is the way PearC is considering its position vs. Apple. They do not build their rational for selling PC with Mac OS X only on terms included in the EULA. As a reminder, Apple states that Mac OS X can only be run on an Apple hardware. PearC explains that in EU, customers are protected against excessive claims included in product licensing/terms of use, and once the customer has purchased legally the product, he can use it the way he wants. PearC also explains that many terms described in the EULA are not valid in EU according to the European regulations. The EULA is a contract, not a law, and a contract might be invalidated because it does not follow the law. As another example of the invalid term in the EULA is the one year warranty applied by Apple on its products, as EU regulations indicate 2 years minimum...
Eckhart Covent is not a new comer in the Mac world, he has been working for 20 years in the field and holds an AASE badge (Apple Authorized Service Engineer). He described himself as a Mac OS X lover, and further explained PearC's wish to offer computer hardware and prices corresponding to models that Apple does not want or does not judge necessary to develop. He clearly states that nobody can offer an integrated product as Apple does, from the design, to the manufacturing and customer experience, however, there is a gap in today's Apple products line, and that's why PearC offers those corresponding models. Unlike other hackintosh based on iDeneb, iPC, etc., PearC models do not affect Mac OS X, so everything is working fine as on Apple hardware. However, you will have problem for running a BootCamp partition or using the Apple Remote, due to the lack of IR receiver.

Eckhart Covent does not think that Apple's and PearC customers are the same peoples, they are different with different needs. He even states that PearC helps Apple to increase the number of Mac OS X users basis and to generate additional incomes by bringing them to iTunes Store and AppStore. We can clearly question his statements: "[Apple's] revenues come from iPhones, iPhone bills, iPods, iTunes and laptops, not rack or tower hardware". According to our sources, margins are bigger on Mac Pro and iMacs than on MacBooks. The same is true probably for the margins on music tracks and AppStore. In addition, both the iTunes Store and the App Store are part of an ecosystem aiming to sell more iPhone/iPod models, as most revenues are coming from hardware sales, and margins on both online stores are complementary and might not even cover investments required to support (hardware and human resources) those services.

PearC offers "tower type" of computer powered by Core 2 Duo/Quad or Core i7 Intel CPU, both desktop processor ignored by Apple. In fact PearC assembles the type of computers many Mac users are expecting Apple to release: a Mac Pro mini without the Xeon CPU, a workstation dedicated Pro CPU. Of course Apple could kill PearC without going to court by releasing a mini tower Mac model, offering evolutivity and performance and powered by a true desktop CPU. If one looks at the current Apple hardware, it is either a mobile CPU (Core 2 Duo) or a workstation Pro-oriented CPU (Xeon), in between there is nothing, a gap, currently exploited by PearC to create its business model. So, Steve, if you read us...