After backlash, Sony to drop $50 fee for not installing bloatware
3:40 pm ET March 21, 2008 - In response to consumer feedback on the issue, Sony will drop the $50 added fee for "Fresh Start" beginning tomorrow.
"Starting March 22, Sony will offer Fresh Start free of charge. We want VAIO users to have the best experience possible with our PCs, and we believe Fresh Start will help ensure that happens right out-of-the-box," the company said in a statement to BetaNews.
Sony did not say whether or not customers would still need to select the $100 upgrade to Windows Vista Business, but we have asked for clarification on this point.
12:00 pm ET March 21, 2008 - In a strange twist, Sony is asking customers to pay a fee not to have their build-to-order laptops filled with the software that typically comes with new computers, frequently called bloatware.
For $50, Sony is offering not to include the standard Vaio applications, trial software and games that it normally pre-installs onto its systems. This software usually has the effect of slowing a computer down, and has even led to reports of out-of-the-box crashes for Sony's Vaio laptops.
The option, called "Fresh Start," is available on Sony's Vaio TZ2000 and Vaio TZ2500 laptops, but only appears if a customer also pays $100 to upgrade the operating system to Windows Vista Business from Vista Home Premium. Ostensibly, Sony believes only business users won't want the bloatware and will be willing pay to extra to have a clean system.
Bloatware has long been a complaint of computer buyers, who find their system trays filled with icons and desktops packed with trial software shortcuts. Formatting and re-installing Windows is often a necessity for those experienced in such tasks, but novice users are left with slow machines that are prone to crash.
Computer makers are starting to listen to these complaints, but there's a lot of incentive in shipping systems with trialware, as software vendors usually give OEMs a cut of sales. Services like AOL used to pay big bucks for primary placement on the desktop and system tray icon. Now, companies like Corel, Microsoft, InterVideo, Intuit and others vie for the crucial real estate.
Dell's Vostro lineup of small business-oriented systems was introduced last July without any trial software. But most consumer-oriented models do not have that option, with Everex's $300 desktop being one of the few exceptions.