5 ms·

How much money do you reckon they saved on the laptop? How much is your time worth?

cmaggard 13y ago
Are you implying that parent should be charging his or her parents for the work, or that he or she should cover the difference out of pocket?
- anonymoushn 13y ago
  Certainly he or his parents should value his time at something other than zero, and maybe be willing to pay a little more for a computer that is identical but demands fewer hours of AIDS removal.
- andybak 13y ago
  If I were him then I think I'd be suggesting that people tend to ignore externalities when praising markets.
- joosters 13y ago
  I was implying that the money saved on the laptop is pretty small, so this 'benefit' to laptop owners is pretty insignificant and totally outweighed by the extra hassle or loss in performance / reliability of the computer. And I'd recommend to anyone doing tech support for parents that they carefully guide them into purchasing a decent, maintainable machine. It's not up to me to tell OP how that gets paid for. (I've ended up buying my dad a computer to avoid him picking up a 'bargain' machine from the supermarket, just because it'd be me that ends up fixing/reinstalling that crap and recovering data...)
  - tn13 13y ago
    Your observation is true for techies but not the general population. Understand that if there was no benefit to putting bloatware no company would have spent their resources on it. For me the benefit of saving $20 is small but not for many people out there. I know many people who think Macbooks are just white colored laptops.
rtpg 13y ago
this is an unsourced data point, but I remember reading (on multiple ocasions) that OEM installs can cost something from 10 cents to a dollar. So even at the high end, you're maybe saving 10 to 15 dollars...
- 2muchcoffeeman 13y ago
  And is this actually realised as a savings to the consumer? I'd imagine it works more like selling advertising space. The bloatware is another source of revenue. Not a means to lower prices. If they were really concerned about maximising consumer value, they wouldn't keep picking dumb prices that end in '9.99'.
  - tn13 13y ago
    Prices are mostly determined by the competition and not by the seller. Say Sony manufactures a laptop at $100 and Lenovo at $102. If Lenovo has to be competition they have to somehow shove off that additional $2 required to make themselves on par with Sony. So every penny counts.
tn13 13y ago
My friends tell me they earn anywhere between $1-$25 depending on many factors. Ignore the techies. Normal people search on internet to find the cheapest laptop they want. People spend hours and days to save $15 on a laptop. They do not understand the difference between Computer with bloatware and Computer without bloatware. I have met many people who talk about "Ask Menu" on internet explorer and come to think that it is a part of IE.

Are you implying that parent should be charging his or her parents for the work, or that he or she should cover the difference out of pocket?

anonymoushn 13y ago
Certainly he or his parents should value his time at something other than zero, and maybe be willing to pay a little more for a computer that is identical but demands fewer hours of AIDS removal.
andybak 13y ago
If I were him then I think I'd be suggesting that people tend to ignore externalities when praising markets.
joosters 13y ago
I was implying that the money saved on the laptop is pretty small, so this 'benefit' to laptop owners is pretty insignificant and totally outweighed by the extra hassle or loss in performance / reliability of the computer. And I'd recommend to anyone doing tech support for parents that they carefully guide them into purchasing a decent, maintainable machine. It's not up to me to tell OP how that gets paid for. (I've ended up buying my dad a computer to avoid him picking up a 'bargain' machine from the supermarket, just because it'd be me that ends up fixing/reinstalling that crap and recovering data...)
- tn13 13y ago
  Your observation is true for techies but not the general population. Understand that if there was no benefit to putting bloatware no company would have spent their resources on it. For me the benefit of saving $20 is small but not for many people out there. I know many people who think Macbooks are just white colored laptops.

rtpg 13y ago

this is an unsourced data point, but I remember reading (on multiple ocasions) that OEM installs can cost something from 10 cents to a dollar. So even at the high end, you're maybe saving 10 to 15 dollars...

2muchcoffeeman 13y ago
And is this actually realised as a savings to the consumer? I'd imagine it works more like selling advertising space. The bloatware is another source of revenue. Not a means to lower prices. If they were really concerned about maximising consumer value, they wouldn't keep picking dumb prices that end in '9.99'.
- tn13 13y ago
  Prices are mostly determined by the competition and not by the seller. Say Sony manufactures a laptop at $100 and Lenovo at $102. If Lenovo has to be competition they have to somehow shove off that additional $2 required to make themselves on par with Sony. So every penny counts.

tn13 13y ago

My friends tell me they earn anywhere between $1-$25 depending on many factors. Ignore the techies. Normal people search on internet to find the cheapest laptop they want. People spend hours and days to save $15 on a laptop. They do not understand the difference between Computer with bloatware and Computer without bloatware. I have met many people who talk about "Ask Menu" on internet explorer and come to think that it is a part of IE.