PCWorld - Icons for trial software and Web services, colorfully known as "crapware," cover new Windows desktops like pockmarks on the face of a Hollywood villain.
Consumers hate crapware because it steals storage space and creates clutter. Microsoft Corp. is no fan either, as consumers blame Windows for running sluggishly, even when crapware is the cause.
Even software vendors and Web site operators who pay big bucks to PC vendors to install crapware on their PCs are becoming disenchanted, according to Michael Kuptz, CEO of Digital Delivery Networks Inc., because of low returns of less than 5% sell-through rate.
Yet crapware has an almost zero chance of going away. "Frankly, it's how the OEMs offset price erosion," said Kuptz, who should know, having spent two decades at IBM and Lenovo Group Ltd. as a PC hardware manager. Before coming to DDNi, he was vice president and general manager of Lenovo's U.S. consumer PC division.
The Scotts Valley, Calif. company is touting its solution called SmileDock. A thin toolbar that resides at the bottom of the Windows desktop and expands when clicked on into a full-fledged control panel, the SmileDock offers infomercial-type content on software and Web services chosen by the PC maker interspersed with free navigation and management features.
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