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Sony: Want us to remove our crapware for you ? Pay us !

Sony is a company that is never shy when it comes to finding questionable ways to making just another buck or to annoy a large part of the Internet community by doing something stupid like the Sony Rootkit disaster last year. Their ingenious minds have come up with yet another way to make the extra buck, it’s really amazing in my opinion.

If you purchase a new notebook – and it does not really matter from which manufacturer you make the purchase – you notice lots of software, many call it crapware, that is preinstalled on that notebook. You get demo or trial versions of software, lots of unnecessary applications from the manufacturer and much more that slow down the computer. Many companies love to add a Norton or Symantec trial to the computer for instance.

Sony obviously thought that some customers would like the crapware removed but instead of offering this as a configuration option that is free of charge they charge $50 for it. Yes that is right. Those who add the crapware ask the customer to pay $50 for its removal. That’s a nice business model don’t you think ?

If you feel desperate you could try to use the software PC Decrapifier instead which removes quite a few applications that are usually installed on new notebooks and computers.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: , Saturday March 22, 2008 -
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Responses so far:

  1. Fluffy Llama says:

    Apparently they have removed the $50 fee, not sure if refunds will be offered.

  2. Martin says:

    Maybe they realized that this is yet another major PR disaster in the making.

  3. Tobey says:

    Just LOL. Or maybe rather Y_Y

  4. coco says:

    well said. craps!

  5. Tommy says:

    i thought these so call crapware is what allow brand name pc to being as cheap 500 usd or below. but even with these “crapware” none of the vaio computer lowered their price for consumers huh?

  6. Roman ShaRP says:

    I think, SONY marketing is just crazy.

  7. avi says:

    they’re not CHARGING 50$, they’re just taking off the 50$ crapware discount that they’ve always had. they make money by putting crapware on, which allows them to sell the computer for cheaper. make less money without crapware = more expensive computer. its called basic economics

  8. Martin says:

    That calculation would only be right if they would indeed receive $50 from the crapware developers which I highly doubt.

    I never owned a Sony notebook but they surely put a lot of their stuff on it as well.

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