It has come to my attention that a certain percentage of Android users are getting more and more frustrated with “Bloatware”, aka pre-installed software that comes installed with a handset. While these said users feel like their space has been invaded, they seem to have overlooked the fact that some of the bloatware is actually a benefit to the device. Even though some of these pre-installed apps might be completely useless (ahem, T-Mobile App Pack), there are others that are absolutely amazing.
When a carrier is trying to advertise a phone to the general user, they try and push as much as they can into the device so they can appeal to as many consumer groups as they possibly can. Enter T-Mobile US’ Samsung Vibrant—one of T-Mobile’s best selling devices of late 2010/early 2011. In order to appeal to the US markets, T-Mobile put in a copy of James Cameron’s “Avatar” (the current highest-grossing film in North America) into the included SD card. While you and I may think that it’s a waste of a good 4GB and a waste of ever-precious battery life, others praised the fact that the movie came with the phone. As well as having a successful movie, Swype was installed as well—something that most phones did not feature at the time (MyTouch 3G Slide is an exception to that statement). Even though the phone was plagued with a faulty GPS and a horrible method of updating, it was quite successful—by January 2011, more than one million units were sold.
Another app that people tend to overlook is Swype—the current world-record keyboard on a cellular mobile device. Today, most Android devices feature a specially-the;med and configured version of Swype. These versions are themed to match the phone’s stock software, and they also are specially made to work with individual devices. One of the biggest regrets of rooting my MyTouch 3G Slide was that I lost the shiny stock Swype theme I had (along with its reliability), and I had to resort to using the beta version.** Even now, the Beta version of Swype that is currently installed on my T-Mobile HD2 is incapable of inputting the word “that’s” and a few other contractions—something the stock versions of Swype I have used did not have trouble inputting. While one can argue that there are alternative swipe-based keyboards out there, I agree, but they are not as efficient as Swype.
Riddle me this, Android users—is bloatware really that bad in terms of permissions? Last I checked, Pandora Radio needs to read your contact data and has the ability to modify calendar events and send email to guests…
Basically, the point I’m trying to make is this– Let carriers install whatever the hell they want, so long as this stuff does not infringe on our rights as consumers and our privacy. As long as carriers are making a profit and giving us users (hopefully) great service, let the masses have their T-Mobile App Packs and Sprint TV apps. If they feel like rooting their phone, and they have the knowledge to do so, it shouldn’t be much of a problem for them, since a few carriers are revoking their locked bootloaders anyway…
**We here at Androidspin feel that piracy is something that should be looked upon. Please don’t steal apps!
About the Author
Try swyping the word “that”, and than swype from the ‘ to the “s”. And voila… That’s
The problem I have with “bloatware” is that the carriers have made it so you can’t remove them without root. It would be a non-issue if they allowed users to do that.
I agree with this although I disagree with the bloatware complaints for a different reason, for the same reason I can’t stand hearing people complain about Samsung updates. My thoughts are simple, if you don’t like it take it off your phone and stop complaining. While the methods for doing this may seem a bit scary to some, as the rooting of your phone is involved, I feel that the basis of Android is creating your own experience. If you want to stick to what manufacturers and carriers give you and then complain about the lack of usability and bugs in the software, why not get an iPhone and join the other sheep.
I believe our device never reach their true potential until a good developer gets a hold of them and releases decent ROM. The rebutal to this may come from the few that feel that rooting your phone and flashing ROMs causes more problems than it solves, which is true in some aspects, not due to simple rooting but flashing random software. To these people it’s simple, if you’ve flashed something and broke something on your phone one of two things happened, you didn’t follow instructions, or you didn’t read the post regarding of the ROM you were downloading to make sure it was fully working.
Just a mild morning rant. =)
The problem with telling people ‘just take it off your phone’, is once they do, they no longer can get updates from the carrier. In Verizon’s case, if you deleted any of that bloatware that came with the phone, it’ll fail the pre-update check, and no ota update for you.
Understandable, but you don’t take a part off your car without knowing how to put it back. Don’t flash a ROM or root your phone without being able to return it to it’s natural state.
My problem with Bloatware is not that it’s there, but that we have to root our phones to get rid of it. Too many devices come with very little onboard space for apps, which is clogged with carrier crapware that most people don’t use or want. Moving most apps to the SD card requires rooting. If we could uninstall that garbage, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad. Would you buy a PC loaded with a bunch of garbage you can’t remove? I wouldn’t, why would I want my phone set up like that?
agreed, if these apps are so great, curious that they make it so hard to uninstall them… and to expect users who don’t want the sprint nascar app to root their phone just to remove it is pretty unrealistic considering the risks of rooting – this coming from the owner of a rooted hero and tablet
Like some have said here, the problem with the bloatware included on our phones is not so much that it is there, as it is that we can not uninstall it, unless we root, and therefore void our warranties.
If the carriers gave us a way to uninstall the bloatware, I don’t think this would even be an issue, just like it is not an issue when you purchase your brand new Windows 7 machine. Does it have bloatware? For sure, however, you can go to the control panel, and uninstall it all if you want to. I want the same control on my phone.
Well my evo 4g has 1gb internal and with apps like sprint football, sprint nascar, sprint navigation, sprint tv, footprints/widget, news/widget, friendstream/wdget, blockbuster, NOVA demo, stocks/widget, peep/widget, facebook/widget, teeter, and swype i am left with 384mb for personnel apps. Needless to say im pretty fed up with bloatware since i keep running out of room. They need a check list so you can choose what bloatware you want.
Install all the crapware you want, just let me remove it.
To echo the replies above, it would not be a big deal if they let you uninstall their bloatware. The Sprint Evo had only something like 50mb free by default after a recent update. That’s rediculous.
Maybe this is the carriers evil intention to prohibit going app-crazy? Limit the amount of free space the user can actually use, and provide their “recommended” apps already on the phone to keep us from seeking out alternatives.
Then again on the other side of the coin… I know a lot of people with smartphones that are dumb when it comes to technology. They have no idea what the Market is, so if an advertised feature is not already installed, they wouldn’t have any idea how to find and install it.
If the carriers were installing bloatware that was relevant to the target market it wouldn’t be AS frustrating. My guess would be that the number of tech geeks that are also NASCAR fans is vanishingly small. However, because Sprint sponsors NASCAR races, we get stuck with an app that a majority of us have no use for. I’ve never watched a SprintCup race, and the prospect of doing so is downright unpleasant. The same for NFL.
Before anyone gets their feathers ruffled, I’m not saying that no one interested in tech can’t also be interested in sports. Just that the numbers are to small to warrant a carrier hogging what is already limited space on a device that they don’t own. If the carriers wants us to use their apps, they need to do a better job promoting them as something that is useful or beneficial to us. Not locking them into our devices and forcing the consumer to root it in order to get rid of it. That’s just playing dirty pool. If we were renting the device, this might be acceptable. But even as a subsidized purchase this is not okay. We sign a contract in order to get that subsidy so a carrier has a reasonable expectation that their up front investment will be returned.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that because we own the phone, it should be our discretion and not the carriers, regarding which apps we want installed on our device. Like the old adage says; You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Which is exactly what the carriers are trying to do.
I tend to agree although I would be happier if such software where kept out of the system partition and thus removable by the end user
You can back up Swype from your Stock ROM and install it once you have a custom ROM. I’m running the G2 specific version of Swype on my CyanogenMOD powered G2 and it works fine.
As for the bloatware, as others have said it wouldn’t be nearly as big of an issue if it could be uninstalled without rooting. My G2 had a surprising amount of bloatware for a supposed “Google Experience” phone and several of the pre-installed apps even auto-started on device boot. On my wife’s MyTouch 4G it was a ridiculous amount of demos and crapware taking up memory and eating CPU cycles as well as battery capacity. After I rooted her phone and got rid of the unnecessary crap her battery life went up 15%.
Carrier bloatware is becoming as bad as PC bloatware…but, it does help with off contract pricing which is something everyone seems to forget. Take this example, an unlocked Galaxy S II cost damn near $800 if not more, but and HTC EVO 3D is $499.99… That is made possible because of companies like Activision and Universal or whoever made The Green Hornet, and others like Gameloft paying for space on the hardware and essentially reducing the overall costs of each device.
This is why HP, Dell, Acer, and other PC manufacturers can sell PCs so damn cheap, unlike Apple, who uses high end parts for construction but doesn’t offset the msrp by loading their computers with crap. Granted, PCs allows one to remove bloatware, which I whole hearted agree with, but you must all understand why companies make deals like this…their bottomline, it makes stockholders happy to see profits. They just can’t ignore the consumer to long or they’ll find a new device, like me, I switched from my EVO 4G to a Nexus S 4G (for free) and I’m totally loving Pure Google, so if you are tired of bloatware from manufacturers and carriers, there is an alternative, root or go Nexus.
Yes that would be fine but take for example the pre installed app “youtube”. The update wont install due to “package signing problems”. The market keeps asking me to install this useless update. If I was able to uninstall the app I could get rid of this problem. There seems to be no way of contacting the people concerned to put this right
It doesn’t matter what they carriers install. That’s fine, but give us the fucking power to remove it. Think of it like a condom, you put it on and use it, but then you’re pretty stupid if you leave it on after it’s used. Seriously, the reason people hate bloatware is because it’s requiried software and the only methodoligy to remove it is to root your phone and forcefully take it off. Like Bing, for example. Bing is all over Verizons network now. Yet you can’t just remove it. It is forced on you as your default search engine. Can’t change that, can you? How does that benefit people?
What Pees me off about pre installed apps are the permissions already granted to them.
Why my newsfeed widget or weather widget needs to read or send sms, mms, emails, make calls, know who I am calling, have the ability to use my passwords and accounts, is beyond me. If I had been aware of this issue, I would have looked for an alternative. I have a HTC sensation.