Forum Moderators: mack
Microsoft and Dell have signed a deal via which Dell will be shipping new PCs with the Live Search toolbar preinstalled, according to sources familiar with the arrangement between the two companies...My sources say that Microsoft has offered Dell sweet enough terms to entice the PC maker to replace its search-preload deal with Google with a comparable offering from Microsoft.
From ZDNet [blogs.zdnet.com]
OEM deals are just one way Microsoft is looking to grow its search share. The company also is considering rebranding Live Search with a more verb-like term. The leading candidate is thought to be Kumo.Com.
So, they may be rebranding Live.com to Kumo.com. MS, it is really difficult to establish a brand if you keep changing the name of things. Live.com to Kumo.com. Vista to Mojave. What's up? Make up your mind, would ya? ;)
Congratulations on the Dell deal. Preinstalled Brand is always a big plus, especially for Microsoft.
The (potential) problem for DELL and Microsoft is that in the EU at least it's illegal to use a (de-facto) monopoly to gain market advantage in other areas.
Hence, I wonder if this will affect DELLs shipped worldwide or just those in the more permissive localities.
Now with all the "junk" pre-loaded: all an experienced user wlll boot it for the first time is to create the installation media and then wipe it all to just reinstall what you actually need anyway ... so the grey masses are the victims of this.
Note that we haven't seen confirmation on this yet.
