Would Bloatware Affect Your Phone Decision.

[Nomadik Kitty]

I just read this article on Wired.com about how Android phones are beginning to get non-removable trial apps on phones, much like the bloatware that plagues PCs.

Love or hate the iPhone and how controlling Apple is with the phone, it's nice that Apple won't let AT&T add anything to their phones and shoots them down whenever the topic comes up. I know that Google did the same thing with the Nexus One, but, unfortunately, that's not the case with all phone makers. HTC and Samsung have both given in to the carriers requests to add apps that cannot be removed without hacking the phone.

“It’s different from phone to phone and operator to operator,” says Keith Nowak, spokesman for HTC. “But in general, the apps are put there to meet the operator’s business and revenue needs.”

Has anyone bought an Android that had these bloatware apps? Would a phone having bloatware added affect your decision to buy a given phone?

I must note, that this is not really new to cell phones, but in the past it's been restricted to feature phones and most smartphones have avoided this annoyance, until now.

Any other thoughts on this burgeoning trend?

[ThermoNukePanda]

I would say it may affect my decision. I know how much I LOATHE bloatware on PCs. *grumble grumble*

That being said, I just want my phone to make phone calls. This is why I switched from a smartphone to a regular candybar/text phone (EnV2 from Verizon).

[MWB]

hasn't been an issue for me thusfar.

[Nomadik Kitty]

hasn't been an issue for me thusfar.

Yeah, some are resisting temptation. I hear the Motorola Droid X doesn't have any and the Droid 2 isn't going to either. It's more a possible problem for the future Android customers than it is for people who bought there's previously.

I'm actually totally unclear on the difference between the Droid X and the Droid 2, but that's a whole other topic.

[Nomadik Kitty]

I would say it may affect my decision. I know how much I LOATHE bloatware on PCs. *grumble grumble*

That being said, I just want my phone to make phone calls. This is why I switched from a smartphone to a regular candybar/text phone (EnV2 from Verizon).

I used to feel that way. I actually had a Palm Treo and switched it out for a normal flip phone back in the day, 'cause it was too bulky and surfing the web on it was horrible anyway, so it wasn't worth it. Now, I use my phone for everything though. I surf the web on it, check my e-mail, play games, kill time in the doctors' waiting rooms, plug it into my alarm clock to wake up to the music on it, read books with the Kindle app and iBooks. No way I can go back. I've been spoiled rotten.

[ThermoNukePanda]

I used to feel that way. I actually had a Palm Treo and switched it out for a normal flip phone back in the day, 'cause it was too bulky and surfing the web on it was horrible anyway, so it wasn't worth it. Now, I use my phone for everything though. I surf the web on it, check my e-mail, play games, kill time in the doctors' waiting rooms, plug it into my alarm clock to wake up to the music on it, read books with the Kindle app and iBooks. No way I can go back. I've been spoiled rotten.

My phone makes phone calls. My PSP does everything else for me. LoL I know what you mean though Kitty.

[Pogre]

If I have bloatware on my Droid, I'm oblivious to it.

That being said, I'm like you. I love my smart phone, and I'm spoiled now.

[Super Kev]

I might actually pick up an iPhone tonight if there are any at the mall .. I don't care about phone calls and have used bad AT&T service to hang up on my brother even when there isn't a drop in service .. I just think he can act like too much of a ****.

I doubt Bloatware would bother me .. I'm sure there's enough tutorials online to show you how to get it off from whatever device you're using.

[Dateranoth]

I don't mind most bloatware on phones since it doesn't affect performance, but I do hate bloatware that is tied to keys you can't remove. I have an older Sony Ericsson phone from ATT and it was full of bloatware you can't delete. Normally that would take up space. However, this phone also locked out Google maps etc so you had no choice but to use the bloatware. I ended up flashing it to a basic unlocked bios from Sony Ericsson. It STILL has bloatware, but it doesn't lock out shortcut keys and it allows me to use 3rd party apps. As long as they don't get too carried away with forcing you to use the app then I don't mind.

[sedington86]

Nothing bothersome on my incredible, and if there was, would be easy to get rid of. Go apple I guess for only allowing apple money making apps preinstalled

[Skylark95]

I just hate companies when they do this...

This is going a little off topic but on my phone there is a button that is permanently mapped to a key that will go to the internet and every time I bump it accidently, I am charged.

[Dateranoth]

I just hate companies when they do this...

This is going a little off topic but on my phone there is a button that is permanently mapped to a key that will go to the internet and every time I bump it accidently, I am charged.

Yeah, I know what you mean with those buttons. I don't know what carrier you have, but I've called in the past and told them to disable internet on my phone. I assume if you are a pay per use plan you don't want it anyhow. They are required to comply.

[Nomadik Kitty]

My phone makes phone calls. My PSP does everything else for me. LoL I know what you mean though Kitty.

Yeah, I kind of planned the same thing at first, sorta. Had a cell phone and an iPod Touch and was just going to skip the iPhone. Problem is that I don't like carrying around a bunch of electronics, so I ended up always taking my phone everywhere and never having my iPod Touch with me. I made a lot of compromises with that phone. I had a little bit of music that would fit on my phone's mem card, which was only 4GB or something and that really crappy internet that feature phones have with that useless crap browser and 2 lame games...Soduku and Tetris. I much prefer having everything in the one device that I always take everywhere.

[Nomadik Kitty]

If I have bloatware on my Droid, I'm oblivious to it.

No worries. They said that Motorola didn't do that on any of their Droid phones so far, so your Droid is clean. I still have yet to see the Droid in person. A couple of people at my work have one and love them, but we're not supposed to bring them into the back, so everybody keeps their phones on the down-low there.

If bloatware doesn't bug people, then that's cool. I'd totally be looking up those easy ways to remove them. I can't stand having a useless trial app thing that I can't just remove. To be fair, the Apple does have some standard apps that you can't remove, but they're not trial versions of crap that the carrier wants you to subscribe to. I don't know why, but that bugs me more, even though I never use the stock app, the built in weather app, or the iTunes app. Those I just relegate to a folder on my last page.

And Skylark...yeah, I got that wrong button internet charge before too. It's annoying getting an "oops" charge of a $1 for bumping the wrong place on your phone.