Motorola has clone to pick with Apple

Motorola has managed to fend off the problems of its troubled OEM partner, Apple, as the manufacturer reduces its dependence as a Macintosh-only player.

According to Samer Roumieh, EMEA vice president of the Motorola Computer Group, the manufacturer and the OEM partners for Motorola?s own machines are set to gain 11 per cent of the total PC market worldwide.

Motorola, which uses Macintosh distributor Principal to sell its Supermax clone products in the UK, sold 56,000 of its latest Starmax machines worldwide between launching the box last year and the end of January, said Roumieh. He maintained that in terms of shipment this gave Motorola an 11.2 per cent market share in January.

He added: ?We?re decoupling the hardware and the software and our discussions with Apple are continuing. On Apple Macs we have a two-pronged approach with our own machines and with OEMs.?

Roumieh said market indications showed that the Mac clone market was expanding and that Apple?s recent U-turn decision not to charge clone makers for each individual licence and machine had helped to maintain the market and encouraged more licensees.

?The delta between Apple machines and clones does not exist any more,? he said. ?We?ve just released a machine for under $3,000 which shows the delta has disappeared.?

In April, Apple bowed under pressure from its Mac clone licensees by putting a proposed price hike on hold. Previously, Apple was preparing to increase fees so that OEMs would pay extra to assemble a system. The manufacturer charged licensees $50 for the Mac OS, which was expected to jump to $1,000. Apple has not yet issued the licence fee for its partners.