So it turns out that pre-loading all of those useless, nuisance, or simply confusing programs on your new computer is how the manufacturers make their profits.
Hardware as a delivery channel for junk mail.
If you've bought a new H.P. or Dell recently, you know what I'm talking about. Software and services businesses pay the computer-makers many millions of dollars to pre-load their stuff -- affectionally categorized as bloatware -- onto new computers. Some programs fire up when you turn the machines on, while others simply linger on desktops or as program menu entries.
Online services. Photo editing. Financial planning. Virus protection. The list is endless, as is the maddeningly fact that many of the programs are samplers, intended to hawk up-sells for the more robust versions. And, even if you remove them, some program (or shards of them) still haunt start-up routines, so the non-expert can never be rid of stray .dlls or the friendly reminder task bar icon.
Hardware as a delivery channel for junk mail.
I'm not surprised that the manufacturers make good money doing this. Lots of consumers probably tolerate the nonsense, and retailers operate a co-dependent service that scrubs the crap off of computers for consumers who demand it (kind of like your insurance company breaking your windshield with a bat, and then offering to repair it, but only if you pay a higher premium).
I'd guess that enough consumers must actually ante up for the upgrades. While it makes obvious, though twisted sense why manufacturers would sell the space on their machines (see junk mail above), I bet the advertisers are banking on the likelihood that they'll capture more customers than they'll offend.
Or maybe there's some residual branding value to putting irritating, useless logos and mentions in front of disinterested, disgruntled customers?
Relevance and utility are not attributes normally associated with fishing expeditions. As a business, you don't chance upon need states, you define and co-create them with your customers, and do so within a meaningful context.
Sampling is a great way to get people involved in the experiential/functional benefits of a product or service. But sampling without context is junk mail. Or a sales offer tied to a helium balloon. Or a pitch stuffed in a bottle, and cast into the ocean.
Supposedly the CE retailers are trying to get the manufacturers to cut back on all the dreck pre-loaded on PCs. I wouldn't hold out much hope for this, as the retailers have no compunction adding their own needless sales pitches to the purchase transaction (extended warranties, clubs, magazine subscriptions, surveys).
No, what'll change it will be when one PC maker figures out how to configure software and services that really matter to consumers. They'll only stop relying on advertising revenue once they can start generating money doing something else.
PS: I remember reading Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book many moons ago, and in it he suggested that consumers could fight back against blow-in cards and other business reply/postage paid junk by gluing the cards to bricks and putting them back in the mail (I never tried it, but he claimed that the offending companies would be liable for the postage costs).
I wonder if there's a similarly devious, culture-jamming response to bloatware. Any dim bulbers know of one?
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