Unable to cope with the increasing legal pressure and supposed loss of their financial backers, Mac clone manufacturer Psystar ended up filing for bankruptcy earlier this month. For fans of Mac machines that aren't fans of high prices, that was a bit of a downer – it seemed for a while that Psystar might be the modern-day equivalent of the IBM clone manufacturers that truly set the PC free years ago. Not all hope is lost, however, as a new startup apparently wants to take the place of Psystar.

Quo Computer is planning to open their first retail specialized in selling Mac clone hardware. The company says their machines will try to match Apple's offerings as closely as possible, albeit at a much lower price. Rather than doing it out of defiance, Quo claims they want Apple to see the value in what they are attempting, which is to provide both quality of hardware and customer support.

Of course, what Apple values and very dearly is their intellectual property, so no matter their intentions it seems Quo is just asking for trouble. I predict that the company will not only face serious legal threats from Apple over selling their software, but also face other legal threats over having a retail presence.