Mac clone makers strike from all sides

It's another Mac attack, but this time Apple Computer (AAPL) has allies.

Mac clone makers are lining up separate strategies to fight for a common goal: beating back PC sales.

DayStar Digital is looking to capture the high end of the market with an emphasis on digital and video effects companies. Umax Computer wants to be the low-price, high-volume Compaq Computer of the Macintosh world. Motorola's new computer group is looking to benefit from its brand name while the first Mac OS licensee, Power Computing, is rolling down the road with its direct-to-customer sales strategy.

The battleground looks treacherous, given that the leader for these troops, Apple, has seen its worldwide PC market share fall to 5.4 percent from 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter. In the U.S. presence has slipped from 13.2 percent to 7.3 percent.

But in the two years since Apple opened up its OS, sales for the Mac clones have been growing. Cloners have managed to get 8.5 percent of the U.S. Macintosh market during the third quarter, according to Dataquest.

Whether they can collectively grab a larger slice of the total pie from their PC equivalents has yet to be seen.

Here's a look at the infantry:

Umax Computer, which is a subsidiary of Umax Data Systems in Taiwan, not only wants to be the high-volume leader but also looks to bolster Mac growth in countries where Microsoft-Intel systems have not made major inroads, according to Frank Huang, chairman of Umax Data Systems.

"We plan to expand the Macintosh market in Taiwan by three times and think we'll do better in the Third World...like in Southeast Asia and parts of China," Huang said.

Umax is expected to grow its worldwide unit shipments to 300,000 by the end of the year, he added.

U.S. sales, where Apple has its strongest hold, reached nearly 100,000 units in its first six months of shipment, and that's expected to increase to 150,000 this year; revenues from domestic sales are expected to reach $170 million. Umax also expects to turn its first profit since its formation last January, said Andy Chang, senior vice president of worldwide sales.

Meanwhile, Huang expects Umax to account for ten percent of the Macintosh market by the year 2000.

"This [business unit] is the fastest growing for Umax right now," he said.

Umax Computer only began shipping its SuperMac systems last June. The systems, priced between $1,299 to $5,000, run at speeds of 166 MHz and up. Earlier this week at Macworld Expo, the company announced its high-end S900 model that runs at 240 MHz on a PowerPC 604e processor--a system the company says is the most powerful Mac clone.