Dell bundles backup with PC hardware

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 27 June 2007 09:35

IT Industry - Strategy

Along with its new notebook and desktop models, Dell announced that a 12-month subscription to its online backup service will be included with the purchase of Inspiron and XPS models.

The amount of space provided under the plan depends on the computer. Inspiron purchasers can store up to 3G of data, while XPS owners get a more generous 10G.

The obvious candidates for online backup include digital photos - although they are often irreplaceable, people often fail to adequately secure the files against loss, corruption and accidental deletion.

The Dell Online Backup Service also provides a way of sharing photos and other files with family and friends.

The cost of the service after the free period was not announced.

Also announced was PC TuneUp, a "preventative health" service that carries out routine maintenance activities including hard drive defragmentation, ensuring Windows updates are applied automatically, removing temporary files, updating firmware, and checking that the firewall is active.

What PC TuneUp does isn't rocket science, but non-techie owners may prefer not to do these chores themselves, and may consider the annual subscription of $A77.66 is money well spent compared with the cost of calling in a technician.

Dell Online Backup and PC TuneUp will be available in Australia soon, Dell officials said.