Silicon.com provides a speculative but interesting piece of the possibility of Apple (again) licensing the Mac operating system to 3rd party PC manufacturers and brining back Mac Clones.
The article also recaps the history of Mac licensing from an early suggestion by Bill Gates for Apple to do so in 1985.
Although the Apple management team resisted his advice initially, the seed was planted and the rambling clone licensing saga spanned the tenures of four Apple CEOs.
The first faltering steps were taken by John Sculley; Michael Spindler ushered in the first clone agreement and Gil Amelio took the scheme to his heart.
The first Mac clone appeared in 1995 and lasted until Steve Jobs return in 1997. At that time, Apple terminated the program, claiming that the clones were not expanding the market and cannibalizing high end Mac sales.
Apple and Steve Jobs, however, have insisted that Mac OS X will remain on Apple branded Macs, despite being approached by a number of PC manufacturers asking to license Mac OS X.
