RSSSony Vaio: first to come with Google Chrome
By Tim Conneally | Published September 1, 2009, 12:45 PM
Google representatives confirmed yesterday that Sony will be bundling the Chrome browser into its Vaio line of notebook computers along with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. This is the browser's first bundling partnership, and follows earlier statements from Google which said that a leading computer manufacturer would ship Chrome.
Sony, however has not made any confirmatory remarks.
In the single year that Chrome has existed, it's garnered a 2.6% share of the global Web browser market thanks to the favorable reviews it has received and its improved performance on platforms such as Windows XP. If Google secures a deal with one of the top five PC manufacturers (HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba: IDC, July 2009), it could easily push up its market share to third place, behind Firefox, and ahead of both Opera and Safari.
Neither the financial terms of Sony and Google's partnership, nor the global availability of Chrome-equipped Vaios have yet been announced. We've contacted Sony for comment.
One of the reasons firefox is enjoying such great market share is thanks to it being on so many platforms. Linux, mac os x, windows etc. So the fact chrome is 2.6 percent on windows alone is pretty impressive in such a short period of time. The power of google is proof right there. The chrome os, the thing isn't even out but just the idea spurred and insane amount of news and debate. No other company gets that kind of press, for essentially nothing. Amazing.
Score: 0
|This will certainly help in improving the Chrome market share to some extent.
http://bit.ly/qsOsG
Score: 0
|It was already bloated with all the proprietary software the Sony installs on their laptops as it is. You wind up doing a clean install to start with. I'm guessing you can still get your laptop without Chrome installed. For a while now, Sony gives you the option of getting a clean install for a price. So if you really don't want Chrome installed, you can pay the extra money for it...
Score: 0
|clean install for a price ;) gee thx Sony!
Score: 0
|What's even better is that you also have to purchas Vista Business to be eligible for this option, you can't get it with home premium so my guess is with 7, you will have to buy 7 Pro to get the clean install...
Score: 0
|Having 2 web browsers is just going to make this thing bloated.
Score: 2
|How long before Opera files a lawsuit?
Score: 2
|I don't think Google should be allowed to bundle its browser with Sony PCs, users should get to choose... blah blah, what Hypocrites
Score: 1
|What some seem to not understand is that Sony is NOT an OS maker. They can bundle whatever cr*p they want with their systems. You can easily delete it if you don't want it. IE is an integrated part of the OS and thus difficult for the average user to remove.
Score: 2
|The perfect solution would be to allow OEM's to install whatever browser they want and leave the OS companies out of it.
Of course, failing that, the EC should force *all* OS/OEMs to go to a ballot screen instead of singling out one company. You'd think, if *choice* really was what they were after (and not just the opportunity to sling more mud at MSFT), that this would be their ultimate goal...
Score: 3
|Well said and ... wait ... isn't this happening now with this deal?
I consider this deal a good thing and a healthy contact for Sony consumers.
Wouldn't say not to this, OEM's are finally starting to also add useful software.
Not just crap- and nagware.
Hopefully we will see a lot of this in the future.
(For me a laptop with Windows 7, Unbuntu, Zenwalk as OS's and ALL available browsers for all OS but let the default be the default of that OS, and put Vlc media player, Inkscape, Blender, Gimp, Xfire, Pidgin, Gfire, Netbeans with JDK, ... on all of the OS's too please. What you say? 20$ extra for installing, that sounds reasonable considering I can do that myself.)
Score: 0
|Actually, I could care less about all this crapware that the OEMs install. If I want it, I can download it myself. Most consumers want a clean install so they can install actually what they want. Not everone is going to want Chrome or Blender or Pidgin. What about the guy who wants Trillian instead of Pidgin or doesn't want neither. What's become even more annoying is that you use to be able to do a clean install in the past on your own, but now, they make it very difficult to do so. With Sony, you would have to interrupt the install process to get a baseline install or it would install all its junk software.
Score: 0
|