Sony repeals $50 “crapware” tax
It’s always good to wake up and see good news first thing in the morning. Yesterday’s $50 crapware fiasco for Sony has abruptly done a one-eighty according to Ed Bott. He spoke with Sony’s Senior VP of the VAIO division and got the following quote:“We heard the message loud and clear… VAIO is the poster child for negative experiences people had [with trialware]. We recognize that, and we acknowledge it. We’ve been really beat up by this issue. We’re listening and we’re taking action.”Goodbye $50 fee for applications and trials that you didn’t ask for in the first place: Sony will be changing their ordering experience so you can opt out of anything you don’t want… and there’s no extra fee for that privilege.No doubt the many blogs and mainstream media outlet raising awareness of this issue played a part; good to see that Sony is listening. Here’s what I’d like to see from the industry in general:1. Stop feeding the “crapware” monster by letting your software partner contracts run out and/or cancelling them if you can.2. Make up the lost “crapware” revenue by putting out better products and offering stellar customer service.3. Save money by simplifying your PC imaging process with base images of the OS and whatever hardware specific drivers and helper apps you need. I used to be responsible for building notebook images used by the entire sales force of a Fortune 500 company: more images equals more complexity which adds to higher risk of imaging mistakes. You’ll lose more in support and a bad rap.4. Software shops that supply said “crapware”: take the money you were giving to Sony, Dell, Acer, etc… and invest it in more developers, different marketing venues, and customer liaisons. If you make good software that meets customers needs and you market properly, you’ll come out way ahead.Other industries give “trials” too, but they don’t impact the purchase as much. When Barb bought her Acura, we got three-months of XM Radio for free. We could opt to listen or not, but it didn’t impact the car or radio if we ignored it. Same with free weekend trials of channels on my satellite dish: I can watch ‘em or not, but they don’t affect the hardware or the experience. There has to be a better way.
I think #2 is a bit funny: take all that revenue you’re losing, and regain by spending more money! If that weren’t using the extra revenue before to make better their company, what makes you think they’ll start after decreasing their revenue?
It’s as simple as biting the bullet for better word of mouth advertising. Either they choose to do it or not, all the other suggestions are stuff that should be done anyway by a good company and/or just consumer-centric dreaming.
My second sentence is what happens when you change phrases halfway through and don’t go back to proofread. Doh!
I’d like to think the current recession will take care of this more than anything else. Fewer people will be buying fewer computers and looking harder for real value. Those manufacturers who have been been boosting their bottom lines by offshoreing customer service and putting all manners of worthless garbage on their computers will be the first to feel the pinch. Want to boost business? How about you spend some quality time with your customers for a change and let your stockholders reap what they’ve been sowing over the past decade.
Actually I would expect a recession to get people to pay more attention to who has the lowest price instead of what magazines and word of mouth say about their customer service. For example: all those no-name $400 Linux-based laptops selling briskly to people that just want to get their email and check the news.