HP PCs to ship with Norton online backup

HP PCs to ship with Norton online backup

HP will ship Symantec's online backup software with all new consumer PCs, under a new agreement between the two companies.

HP customers be offered a free one-month trial to Norton Online Backup, followed by an annual subscription for $50 (£30).

The backup service is one of several cloud-computing products the company has introduced over the past year in a bid to stem slowing sales growth.

Revenue at Symantec's consumer unit grew only 3% in its most-recent fiscal year, down from 10% a year earlier.

The company has also introduced a cloud-based service for repairing PCs as well as one for letting parents monitor use of family computers.

Symantec already has a PC distribution agreement with HP through which it sells Norton Internet Security.

HP and Symantec have declined to say when the security software agreement is due to expire, but executives with security software maker McAfee have said that they hope to woo the contract away from Symantec.