Sony who are struggling to make a profit from their Vaio PC’s and notebooks has cut with Google to promote the search Companies new Chrome browser.

The move is a blow to Microsoft who appear to have more problems with their Explorer browser as they move to new versions. It will also hurt their Bing serach engine efforts.

According to the Financial Times the deal with Sony will see the Google Chrome browser shipped on new Vaio PCs.

In a statement issued by Google the search Company confirmed that Sony PCs carrying Chrome had started to go on sale and said it was in talks for similar deals with other computer makers. It said the arrangement was “experimental” and part of wider efforts to boost distribution, including a deal to make Chrome available to internet users who download the RealPlayer software and the company’s first use of television advertising.

In an interview with the FT, Brian Rakowski, product management director for Chrome, claimed a successful launch for the browser, which has 30m active users. “It’s not so important everyone uses Google Chrome, it’s more important browser technology evolves as fast as it can,” said Mr Rakowski. Chrome set new records in terms of its speed, prompting a race among rivals to boost the performance of their own software.