Responding to a tidal wave of outrage, Sony has reversed a plan to charge $50 to remove all the pre-installed applications — often derided as "bloatware" or "craplets" — from its high-end TZ-series notebooks.

Earlier today, PC World reported that Sony would charge $50 for a configuration option called "Fresh Start," which would not include the bloatware. When contacted by Gadget Lab, a spokesperson for Sony said that the company will now remove that charge.

"There will be no charge for Fresh Start," said the spokesman.

Like many notebook manufacturers, Sony preloads its notebooks with anti-virus, anti-spyware and other useful software. Problems arise when such applications swiftly expire, offer limited functionality, or result in poor system performance–or when there is simply so much of it that it cannot be easily removed.

Fresh Start will now be a no-cost option on Sony's slick subnotebooks, but only for those who opt for Windows Vista Business Edition, a $100 upgrade. Most sites covering the $50 Fresh Start charge were incensed at the idea of being charged to leave malfunctioning and unwanted software off – and Sony has responded with a speed unusual for the international giant.

"It's clear that it's an unpopular thing to have that much crapware on your system," said Richard Shim, an IDC analyst, before the company's reversal. "But Sony's move makes people feel like a pawn between manufacture and software provider. The feeling is you're being exploited, like someone's making money off our your own personal pain in the butt."

Equipment manufacturers, he said, lose a revenue stream when they don't include the software. But that decision must be balanced against customers' desire for fast, cleanly-configured hardware.

"Which would you rather deal with: Loss of revenue or loss of customer satisfaction?" said Shim, who implied —accurately, it turned out— that it would be watching the response closely. "It seems like they're (Sony) testing the waters to see what the customer threshold is for paying more for less headaches. ... I don't think it will go over well."

Earlier today, blogs erupted with outrage at the planned charge, with Engadget opening a headline with "Sony Hates You."

This writer's seen the results of indiscriminate software installation before from Sony, which might be forgiven for anticipating that people would be pay to be free of it. For example, the following screen grab shows a stack of preloaded applications – some of which won't work properly on the notebook – shortly after a Sony notebook's first boot-up.

This was what came up the first time I booted up a $2,700 Vaio SZ sent in for review.

It's possible that the production process itself is so streamlined that the unwanted software is burned onto the hard drive in the factory – thus incurring further costs to remove it afterwards.

Among the software included on TZ systems, which "Fresh Start" will remove, are the "specific VAIO applications," Microsoft Works Special Edition, trial versions of Microsoft Office and Corel Paint Shop Pro; and a crippled version of QuickBooks that can only track 20 customers.

Sony Removes Bloatware–for a Fee [PC World]

**

Bryan Gardiner contributed to this piece.