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. Computer manufacturers make lots of money from the programs they add to their devices before they ship them to customers or retail stores.
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?
Sony therefore makes money from companies that pay it to add software that the majority of customers do not want, and then gives customers an option to pay it too to remove those applications again from the PC.
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.
How about you? Would you pay a company to get a clean laptop or mobile device instead of one that is shipping with lots of crapware?
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Apparently they have removed the $50 fee, not sure if refunds will be offered.
Maybe they realized that this is yet another major PR disaster in the making.
Just LOL. Or maybe rather Y_Y
well said. craps!
i thought these so call crapware is what allow brand name pc to being as cheap 500 usd or below. but even with these “crapware” none of the vaio computer lowered their price for consumers huh?
I think, SONY marketing is just crazy.
they’re not CHARGING 50$, 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
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.
7 years later and still doing this crap! ugh!