Lenovo Statement on Superfish

Post by Lawtonfogle » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 7:45 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #183

logn wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side is that there are genuine discounts for many products that save you money with no strings attached. It's just differential pricing: they want to sell their products for more money to people who want to spend more money. Or it's part of an affiliate advertising program and the way to ensure affiliate codes get entered by buyers is to offer them a discount. I hate many ads too but I'll seek out discounts…

Grocery shops have another trick up their sleeve - they lower prices on some products, but raise prices of complementary goods. So you can have a genuine discount on bread, and at the same time heavily overpriced cheese. They're betting on you not caring enough to split your shopping between multiple venues. My mother recently told me how she's tired of keeping track of prices (or price/quality tradeoff) in 5+ differ…

Post by vinceguidry » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 7:50 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #126

Kurtz79 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, it seems something coming out of PR/Lawyer guys rather than actual engineers. I mean, the statement is pretty clear and leaves little room for doubt, it would take a lot of simplification and misunderstanding to twist a proper technical analysis (provided it has been done, or even asked) to this level.

> I mean, the statement is pretty clear and leaves little room for doubt That's how you know it isn't from an engineer. We always leave a little room for doubt e.g. "I'm 90% sure this will work!"

Post by takluyver » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 7:57 PM UTC

omegaham wrote: post #163

FooBarWidget wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would SEEM obvious because as techies we hate ads. But you can't extrapolate this to the general population. There was one time when I visited my mother. We started her instant messaging program, and we were presented with special offers. I recognized it as such within half a second, so I almost automatically checked the 'Do not show this again' checkbox. My mother alarmed me: "No, do not make it go away! I want…

The difference is that I go to the supermarket every week and spend money, so coupons save me money on stuff that I'd be buying anyway. In contrast, Internet advertising offers me pretty much nothing of interest.

Post by takluyver » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:11 PM UTC

jakejake wrote: post #127

profinger wrote: post #47

Honestly, I wish there was a way to comment on their stupid statement. These bullsh*t companies need to realize that users don't want the stupid bloatware in the first place. I paid you a TON of money for this computer the least you can do is give it to me in its best condition. You wouldn't buy a car that came painted with advertisements on the side!

They are perfectly aware of how people feel about bloatware. Dell at one point offered clean installs but you had to pay something like $30 extra. This probably provides some type of clue that they make about that much more per machine by including all the pre-installed crap.

Post by compbio » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:13 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #260

tempestn wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of Lenovo being full of shit, there's also this gem: > The relationship with Superfish is not financially significant; our goal was to enhance the experience for users. Right. You loaded adware onto users' computers, not for financial gain, but to enhance the experience for them.

There's also the difference between what they say: "We will not preload *this* software in the future." and what they don't say: "We will not preload *such* software in the future." (Emphasis added)