Olivetti, Acorn & Goldstar tipped as next MacOS licensees

Apple Computer Inc is now said to be close to signing up Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA, its majority-owned British affiliate Acorn Computer Group Plc and LG Group Ltd's GoldStar Technology Incas Mac OS licensees.

According to PC Week and MacWeek, Power Computing Corp, the Milpitas PowerPC systems builder in which Olivetti is a significant shareholder, will supply finished boards to all three.

However a quick chat to some of our sources suggests that while Olivetti and Goldstar probably are in the frame, Acorn isn't.

The UK company issued a rather puzzled denial, saying it had absolutely no plans to take Mac OS.

Still, it pointed out that in the future, it might be technically feasible to put a Mac OS board into the Archimede's processor expansion slot.

The US papers expect the first machines this autumn - and all are said to be interested primarily in Power Computing's upcoming line of PCI-based Macs, which are expected to include six- and three-slot boxes taking PowerPC 601 and 604 processors.

Goldstar is expected to focus exclusively on its home South Korean market, Olivetti is expected to offer its Mac clones through retail channels in the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

And Acorn has an entree to English schools that is denied to Apple Computer Inc and the Cambridge company clearly believes that it can offer Macintosh clones as higher-end machines that many schools will not be able to afford, without compromising its cheaper home-grown ARM RISC-based Archimedes computer line.

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