South Korea says 'no more!' to mobile bloatware

Thanks to new industry guidelines beginning in April, South Korean smartphone users will be able to delete all the bloatware pre-installed on their new phones.

"The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players," said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

By having the ability to delete apps, users will have more storage space and improved battery life, says the Ministry.

With the exception of a few "necessary items" related to Wi-Fi, NFC and App Store connectivity, carriers and OEMs will have to make all other pre-installed apps deletable.

One example noted by the Ministry is the Galaxy S4 released by Korean carrier SK Telecom. The device has 80 pre-installed apps, 39 by Samsung, 25 by SK and 16 by Google. When the guidelines hit, at least 50 percent of those 80 will be deletable.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jan 2014 13:26

GryphB

It would be nice if that would also become a standard internationally. I'd say I use less than 1% of the apps that came with the phone.

26.1.2014 13:37 #1

baxter00

I don't see that ever happening in the US.

26.1.2014 15:01 #2

GryphB

Originally posted by baxter00: I don't see that ever happening in the US.
Of course not. We are capitalistic and doing so would take that away.

26.1.2014 22:08 #3

scorpNZ

Yeah for sure a whole lotta junk i'll never use & no way to get rid of it,honestly wtf am i going to do with a walking distance meter just to name one what a useless app

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27.1.2014 01:29 #4

KillerBug

Originally posted by GryphB: Originally posted by baxter00: I don't see that ever happening in the US.
Of course not. We are capitalistic and doing so would take that away. Don't blame capitalism. You can buy a Nexus or you can root a non-nexus and install a cleaned ROM (or just manually delete the APKs for the apps you don't want). If not for capitalism we would still be using Motorola bricks and the only reason we wouldn't have bloatware would be the 16K of ram.

27.1.2014 01:57 #5

GryphB

Originally posted by KillerBug: Originally posted by GryphB: Originally posted by baxter00: I don't see that ever happening in the US.
Of course not. We are capitalistic and doing so would take that away. Don't blame capitalism. You can buy a Nexus or you can root a non-nexus and install a cleaned ROM (or just manually delete the APKs for the apps you don't want). If not for capitalism we would still be using Motorola bricks and the only reason we wouldn't have bloatware would be the 16K of ram. Very true. But at least S.K. is making it so that their residents don't have to go through hoops and hurdles to get rid of the crap we don't need.

27.1.2014 19:01 #6

KillerBug

Originally posted by GryphB: Originally posted by KillerBug: Originally posted by GryphB: Originally posted by baxter00: I don't see that ever happening in the US.
Of course not. We are capitalistic and doing so would take that away. Don't blame capitalism. You can buy a Nexus or you can root a non-nexus and install a cleaned ROM (or just manually delete the APKs for the apps you don't want). If not for capitalism we would still be using Motorola bricks and the only reason we wouldn't have bloatware would be the 16K of ram. Very true. But at least S.K. is making it so that their residents don't have to go through hoops and hurdles to get rid of the crap we don't need. Well, they are at least making it so that the hurdles that people DO have to go through to remove the bloatware do not void warranties. In spite of the additional work to setup phones with removable bloatware, I'm sure it will still be there (normally these apps are installed as part of the ROM). I'd still rather see these corporations learn their lesson the hard way, but I can certainly understand why the government they pay taxes to wouldn't want that.

27.1.2014 20:24 #7

NHS2008

Originally posted by scorpNZ: Yeah for sure a whole lotta junk i'll never use & no way to get rid of it,honestly wtf am i going to do with a walking distance meter just to name one what a useless app I use it!

31.1.2014 10:44 #8

yeller

Buy an iPhone, it has no bloatware.

Apple is the only company to give US carriers the finger when they wanted to garbage up the iPhone.

31.1.2014 19:14 #9

phobet

Having bloatware installed on your device is one of the true costs of having a subsidized phone. Those subsidies have to come from somewhere, and you know the telcos won't foot the bill if they can get someone else to.

6.2.2014 09:48 #10

KillerBug

Originally posted by NHS2008: Originally posted by scorpNZ: Yeah for sure a whole lotta junk i'll never use & no way to get rid of it,honestly wtf am i going to do with a walking distance meter just to name one what a useless app I use it! You can download the app if you want it.

Originally posted by yeller: Buy an iPhone, it has no bloatware. I know that isn't true...at the very least there is Apple's crummy maps program and that facetime crap that is like hangouts except it only works with other Apple devices.

6.2.2014 12:01 #11

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