From Walt Mossberg, the leading tech writer for older rich white guys, on his recent frustrations following the purchase of a new Sony laptop and having to deal with “the plethora of teaser software and advertisements for products that must be cleared and uninstalled to make way for your own stuff”:
The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don’t act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.
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On my new Sony, there were two dozen trial programs and free offers. The desktop alone contained four icons representing come-ons for various America Online services, and two for Microsoft. The start menu and program menu had more items that I neither chose nor wanted. Napster, a music service I don’t use, was lodged at the lower right of the screen.
The worst was a desktop icon called “Watch Hit Movies Now!” This turned out to be four full-length films from Sony’s movie studios, which the company had preloaded onto my computer at the cost of more than four gigabytes of precious hard-disk space. But they aren’t a gift. If you want to play them, you have to pay Sony.
This is not a “Macs are better than PCs” thing. This is a prevalent issue in the PC industry where marketers are deciding to sell their product’s experience to the highest bidder. It’s true that Apple was heading in a similar direction in the mid 90’s when I can remember seeing several third-party services and products on a new Mac’s desktop, but if you buy a Mac today you see none of that. You see a company deciding not to take money sitting on the table because they care more about the experience a consumer receives rather than the few extra bucks they could add to the bottom line. Hardly the only reason, but surely one of the things that makes new and existing Apple customers like their products so much and buy them over and over again.
Can you imagine car manufacturers doing the same kind of thing? What if every time you started your new minivan a voice came on that said, “Be sure to take advantage of a special discount offered to all our new customers for Armor All Carpet & Upholstery cleaner! It cleans the toughest automotive dirt and grime from your car’s interior. Look for the valuable coupon in your car’s manual. Armor All – We’ve got you covered,” until you navigated into the car’s computer using the stereo’s buttons and disabled the “Valuable Offer” feature. How is that any different than what Sony’s doing on Walt’s laptop?
Good marketing offers value to both you and your company in a way that suits the consumer’s needs, not yours. Everything else is spam.