Sorry, obviously that’s not true. Nope, no way Jose. The top of the range laptops sent with Vista pre-installed to high profile bloggers around the world were not bribes, they were gifts. No, scrap that, obviously Microsoft would not send influential bloggers a valuable lappy as a Christmas gift, that could look like bribery to some people. Oh yes, that’s it: these are review units.
But review units with a difference, and please let this professional reviewer explain what that is. You see the review business does not work like most of those outside it assume, with the reviewer getting a barrow full of expensive kit to keep and flog on eBay in return for writing nice stuff about the product. Professional reviewers, and in fairness professional vendors, are a lot more honest that that. What happens is that the vendor, or more commonly the PR company that represents the vendor, will contact the reviewer and ask if they are interested in looking at product X. If the reviewer says that they are, then a loan form is emailed over which needs to be signed and faxed back before the kit is despatched. This loan form sets out the nature of the agreement, how long the product will be on loan to the reviewer, when it is due back, and the cost that has to be borne by the reviewer should it not be returned in full working order and by that agreed date. Sometimes, when it comes to smaller items such as USB flash sticks or budget MP3 players for example, the vendor will provide these as review units on a ‘not for resale’ basis so that the reviewer can keep it or give it to family/friends but not flog it on eBay. This never, ever happens with larger and more expensive kit such as a laptop though.