Toblerone's Brexit trim should be applied to bloatware

The software you want, the price you pay now. What's not to like?

Comment Toblerone's decision to keep its post-Brexit price stable by just selling less chocolate for the same price is a tactic the software industry should copy.

I offer this suggestion because so much software is "bloatware" packed with features hardly anyone uses, but the inclusion of those features is used to justify the price. With those prices rising due to Brexit-created currency wobbles, "doing a Toblerone" and trimming the fat could maintain software costs without annoying most customers.

Consider the equation editor in Microsoft Word, a tool that's handy in a pinch but surely does not dent sales of dedicated tools. Nor can it ever have sparked a single a cry of "I simply must buy Word to get my hands on its equation editor!" Or consider the app store that Samsung bravely includes in its own handsets, but is largely ignored. Would anyone miss it? I'd rail against the Save As AportisDoc (a database file format for PalmOS) feature in OpenOffice too, were the suite not already free.

UK... What have you done??? #Brexit #Toblerone pic.twitter.com/BmrrJWD8sf

— Enda Conway (@EndaConway) November 8, 2016

But by now I hope you get the point: diluting Toblerone reduces the product's quality. But diluting plenty of software might actually make it better by shortening menus, decluttering GUIs and reducing disk footprint. And if it also means pre-Brexit pricing can remain in force, consumers win two ways!

Just like Toblerone, which may also have invented a cunning way to get you buying two chocolate bars when you need a choccy fix. ®

Oh no! What's next? #Toblerone #TobleroneGate pic.twitter.com/yd3In76QHA

— David Maninger (@Davemanin) November 8, 2016