Android Bloatware
There’s an interesting article at Wired Gadget Lab on how bloatware is creeping into Android phones. Bloatware is (usually trial) apps that have been pre-installed by the handset OEM or carrier. You often don’t won’t them and there are usually much better alternatives to be found elsewhere.
This topic came up briefly at Mobile Monday London this week. A developer gave the opinion that software promoted this way (or even promoted in the app stores themselves) goes against what should be ‘natural selection’ in the app stores where apps usually compete on their own merits.
Of course, this isn’t new. Carriers and OEMs have been bundling unwanted extra software and more seriously, excluding desirable software for a very long time. Examples of the latter (by Nokia) include removing the capability to do VOIP and making phones less open to add-on applications. In fact, the whole difficult situation of signing Java ME (J2ME) applications (and Symbian signing for that matter) was brought about by carrier needs. But I digress.
However, the problem is larger than described by Wired. The problem isn’t just one of wasted phone resources and unwanted apps cluttering the screen. Whenever extra software has been added to the baseline OS, this software has to be fully tested (and fixed) whenever the carrier or OEM wants to ship an OS or firmware upgrade. This significantly increases the time it takes to get OS upgrades out to users. In some cases it might even be a deciding factor not to try to provide an OS upgrade.
