Before they ship computers to retailers like Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the United States, computer makers load them up with lots of free software. For $30, Best Buy will get rid of it for you.
That simple cleanup service is threatening the precarious economics of the personal computer industry.
Software companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars to computer makers like Hewlett-Packard to install their photo tools, financial programs and other products, usually with some tie-in to a paid service or upgrade.
With margins growing thinner than most laptops, this critical revenue can make the difference between profit and loss for the computer makers, industry analysts say.
If the programs are removed, the software makers gain no value out of the $2 to $10 they typically pay HP and others to install them on each computer — and computer makers miss out on their cut from revenue-sharing deals. But Best Buy tells computer buyers that the preinstalled software, also known as “bloatware,” can clutter their machines and slow them down.
“You’d be surprised how often consumers tell us to get rid of it,” said Robert Stephens, the head of Geek Squad, the technical support division of Best Buy that removes the software. He declined to say how many people were paying for the service, but said that “it’s going to increase in popularity.”
The demand for the service, along with similar offers from Circuit City and other chains, reflects an outpouring of consumer frustration with the way that a brand-new computer can feel as though it is full of digital infomercials — even if those come-ons knock a few dollars off the computer’s price tag.
The Web has dozens of do-it-yourself guides to removing such software, which, as one tutorial puts it, “turns your computer into a messy battleground.” Stephens said the computer makers…