As Symantec Corp. launched its new Norton 360 consumer security suite today, the company acknowledged that some users may be put off by the price, nearly double the list price of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live OneCare.
"There will definitely be some price sensitivity" on the part of users, said Mark Kanok, 360's product marketing manager. "But the breadth and execution of Norton 360's functionality is greater [than OneCare's]. And I don't think anyone should undersell the intelligence of users."
Norton 360, which includes a firewall, antivirus and anti-spyware scanning software, rootkit detection, anti-phishing protection, online and local backup and restore, and computer diagnostic tools, goes on sale today for $79.99 for a one-year subscription. Like Microsoft's OneCare, which lists for $49.95, it can be installed on up to three PCs.
The Symantec suite has been touted by the Cupertino, Calif., company as both its next generation consumer security product and a competitor to OneCare, which Microsoft launched in 2006 to much fanfare, primarily because of its price and three-PC license.
"People who have been with Norton for a long time know that we've been in the [security] business for 20-plus years," said Kanok, responding to questions about how 360 can compete with a lower-priced product from Microsoft. "It does create some new challenges though," he said.
View: Full Article @ Computer World
"There will definitely be some price sensitivity" on the part of users, said Mark Kanok, 360's product marketing manager. "But the breadth and execution of Norton 360's functionality is greater [than OneCare's]. And I don't think anyone should undersell the intelligence of users."
Norton 360, which includes a firewall, antivirus and anti-spyware scanning software, rootkit detection, anti-phishing protection, online and local backup and restore, and computer diagnostic tools, goes on sale today for $79.99 for a one-year subscription. Like Microsoft's OneCare, which lists for $49.95, it can be installed on up to three PCs.
The Symantec suite has been touted by the Cupertino, Calif., company as both its next generation consumer security product and a competitor to OneCare, which Microsoft launched in 2006 to much fanfare, primarily because of its price and three-PC license.
"People who have been with Norton for a long time know that we've been in the [security] business for 20-plus years," said Kanok, responding to questions about how 360 can compete with a lower-priced product from Microsoft. "It does create some new challenges though," he said.

It is cool to have everything in one package .... if you don't mind loosing around 10 - 15% performance from you computer.
How would you like 70 buck a year? Sound good?
You only have to modify your behaviour a bit when on line.
Firstly, if you have a router you don't need a firewall. Nothing can come in that you haven't requested. A router is pretty stupid. It doesn't know that you may want something. Unless you specifically say "I am waiting for xyz on port xx,xxx" the router will totally ignore it.
Next don't open attachments on email unless you are 100% sure that the person you received it from, actually sent to that attachment. There are plenty of free AV solutions that you can use to scan an attachment before opening it. Also try pushing all you email through GMail. They catch most all the spam and dodgy emails.
Don't click on links in email unless you can see the actual link. In other words use plain text to view your email, not HTML. If you receive an email from ABC Bank, but the link is http://64.123.123.257, the chances are its phishing. Banks, Ebay, PayPal,.... do not ask you to click on a link and enter your details (especially the PIN for you CC). For those of you in the UK, you should be getting EBay and PayPal emails from the .co.uk domain. The .com ones are normally spam.
Be careful of what you download. Resist the temptation you accept everything. Use an up to date browser and pump up the security settings. A lot of spyware install because you say it can. Read the EULA before installing to see exactly what the product is installing.
I'm not saying the you don't need security software, but watch out for that bloated, expensive stuff that is out there. Change you habits slightly and using some of the freeware or cheaper products out there.
How do you "loose" performance?
Is it tight performance otherwise?
NIS 2007 is taking a whopping 20MB or RAM on my system here. I'm at 4% CPU usage with IE7 (4 tabs) Firefox 2 (5 tabs), Outlook 2007, and my newsreader. Windows Vista Ultimate.
Not everyone is a "leet" computer user like you are obviously. Explain to grandma how a router firewall (which provides NO security these days) works. Two way firewalls are needed even by experienced users.
Before posting a rant on something you clearly know little about you might want to check how to spell "lose".
priceless
Anyone who isn't totally clueless won't even touch either with with a ten foot pole
Yeah, and you'd think by now they could hack together some decent software. Seriously, no offence intended for people that use NIS 200x - IMHO it's one of the more user-friendly apps with regards to its GUI, but the damn program is the very definition of bloatware. 360 - the amount in gigabytes of RAM that this POS takes up when idle.
I don't think anyone is complaining about the security software companies in general but, we are all complaining how year after year Symantec's Home products are such crap and it has been proven time and time again. We are ALL glad that there are security software companies in business but we just don't like Norton.
[Back on topic] I'll would like to install 360 and onecare (not at the same time) and see how they compare, but I have to wait until they release X64 versions for Vista.
[Back on topic] I'll would like to install 360 and onecare (not at the same time) and see how they compare, but I have to wait until they release X64 versions for Vista.
[Back on topic] I'll would like to install 360 and onecare (not at the same time) and see how they compare, but I have to wait until they release X64 versions for Vista.
Well there is a huge difference between the time when "Norton" belonged to Peter Norton and when, unfortunately, the company was bought by Symantec.
I used "Norton Commander" and many other program when Peter Norton developped them but after Symantec bought the brand the quality of the products sinked. I rememebr Delrina software like Winfax etc.; they ruled until Symantec took over, after that same destiny of Norton. Bottom line: Symantec is like a kiss of death.
Norton can go in the same bin as AOL and RealPlayer etc. it's all bloated crapware.
Sorry, I gave in to my inner grammar Nazi for a second. This one really bugs me.
Sorry, I gave in to my inner grammar Nazi for a second. This one really bugs me.
there/their/they're: one of my pet peeves, as well. kill all people who don't talk good!
Sorry, I gave in to my inner grammar Nazi for a second. This one really bugs me.
there/their/they're: one of my pet peeves, as well. kill all people who don't talk good!
Nah, just slap them in the back of the head so that they can be bothered picking up a thesaurus next time.
---
Their consumer products though are dreadful. Go back to the drawing board Symantec please and sort your applications out.
Is this $70 every year to renew the subscription? Or just a $70 initial cost and then like $39.95 or whatever it is right now to renew?
Norton IS a problem. Like everyone has pointed out, it has become more and more bloated with every release. Much like everyone else, I used to use it in the Windows 98 days. I used to recommend it to everyone because of how well it worked and the fact that it didn't slow systems down or hurt stability. That all changed with the 2004 version of the software. Since then, it's been getting worse and worse. I usually steer people towards AVG now.
There's a problem with your software when you have to have an additional uninstall tool (besides the regular uninstaller) to remove it from the PC. And it's even worse when that tool still misses things.
Norton IS a problem. Like everyone has pointed out, it has become more and more bloated with every release. Much like everyone else, I used to use it in the Windows 98 days. I used to recommend it to everyone because of how well it worked and the fact that it didn't slow systems down or hurt stability. That all changed with the 2004 version of the software. Since then, it's been getting worse and worse. I usually steer people towards AVG now.
There's a problem with your software when you have to have an additional uninstall tool (besides the regular uninstaller) to remove it from the PC. And it's even worse when that tool still misses things.
+1
"Oh but... It's Norton! It's supposed to be good!" Just like Ford was good.. back in the day.........Not the same story nowa-dayz.
Its a shame they killed the norton name, norton utilities back in the mid-late 90's was a great product.
Ghost and PCAnywhere are still good though, its the consumer end stuff that sucks
I hope most consumers realize that the "Norton" name doesn't mean quality anymore.
And Nortons **** is the most bloated and overrated AV ever created, and thats just what i think of the AV side of things.....
I'd rather leave my computer connected, with firewall down and post its IP on messageboards than use use Nortons crap on my PC
haha it sucks to the point that even those software pirates don't want to use it
I use Internet Security 2007, 20MB RAM, no CPU. Shoots up to about 28MB RAM and 40% CPU doing a full system scan (maximized, not in background).
Anyone who actually uses it and has problems can talk. I've worked tech benches. Norton is rarely, if ever, the problem. Even then, it's usually not configured properly or even turned on.
"I do this, I do that"...well fine for you. There are tens of millions of PC users out there who are totally clueless about phishing, bad emails, etc. Not every person who drives a car is a mechanic. Grandma & Grandpa who have a PC to look up movie times and look at pictures of the grandkids aren't going to know any of this stuff some of you claim to know so well.
Many comments are clearly based on bad personal experience. Mine were.
I use Internet Security 2007, 20MB RAM, no CPU. Shoots up to about 28MB RAM and 40% CPU doing a full system scan (maximized, not in background).
Anyone who actually uses it and has problems can talk. I've worked tech benches. Norton is rarely, if ever, the problem. Even then, it's usually not configured properly or even turned on.
"I do this, I do that"...well fine for you. There are tens of millions of PC users out there who are totally clueless about phishing, bad emails, etc. Not every person who drives a car is a mechanic. Grandma & Grandpa who have a PC to look up movie times and look at pictures of the grandkids aren't going to know any of this stuff some of you claim to know so well.
Like I said in my earlier post, this is from experience and not product bashing. Since I'm in the computer industry, I usually end up helping friends and family with issues on their computers. I've already had to uninstall the pre-installed Norton 2007 Internet Security software on two new computers this year alone (with Vista). The software is extremely intrusive and not well designed in my experience. With my experience over the past 10 years with Symantec products, it would take a great deal of effort for me to get the "bad taste" out of my mouth.
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