Consumerist: Angry Letter to Verizon re: Bloatware

[TheObviousChild]

Verizon, My New Smartphone Has An Incredible Amount Of Bloatware - The Consumerist

Apparently all the pre-loaded (and unremovable) bloatware really pissed this guy off. Some valid points.

 

[jwm2]

Obviously hes never had a verizon phone before. This phone comes with less bloat than the droid eris and other previous handsets. Usually verizon loads these puppies up. With 748mb of space i'm shocked they didn't use 747.9mb of it

 

[Colchicine]

Redaction fail. They took out his last name in the first line, but included it at the bottom.

 

[5thElement]

Dont worry guys, root will solve all this.

 

[gbenj]

Redaction fail. They took out his last name in the first line, but included it at the bottom.

Haha, good call

 

[Rubik76]

Wonder if Timothy typed that on an HP laptop...

 

[kyler13]

Redaction fail. They took out his last name in the first line, but included it at the bottom.

Time to write an angry letter to the Consumerist about their failure to protect his identity. Maybe he can forward that to, i don't know, maybe Engadget, where he might have a little better luck with anonymity.

 

[eipee73]

Time to write an angry letter to the Consumerist about their failure to protect his identity. Maybe he can forward that to, i don't know, maybe Engadget, where he might have a little better luck with anonymity.

I'm selling his identity to Gizmodo

 

[andrewzpsu]

He's right about this bloatware stuff. Like really stuff should be able to be cleared from the phone like you can do to a pc. Sure, load it with useless shit/things we don't want but at least let us delete the bloatware.

The battery is fine once you get the phone to sleep....

 

[daniel5on]

he should stop wining , its annoying.

 

[jwm2]

Also complaining to verizon is not the answer. Its HTC that is loading the bloatware on the phone and to be honest most of it is there to enhance most users experience with the phone. If certain apps weren't installed people would be complaining because it SHOULD come with those apps. Obviously an option to remove them would be nice, but i bet the majority of users don't mind the apps they include.

 

[kyler13]

Perhaps he'll return the phone and get the Desire when it comes out on AT&T. Of course, he'll be writing an angry letter to AT&T about all the Yahoo bloatware they put on a Google Android phone. Don't you just love whiners?

BTW, he doesn't "technically" fully own the phone until he completes his contract, unless he purchased it outright. I realize walking away doesn't require you to return the phone, but the $350 ETF pretty much spells out the system under which most people get a new cell phone these days: lease to own.

 

[jwm2]

He doesn't own the phone but he can return it and walk away from his contract within 30 days without any ETF fees or even a restocking fee. So if he wants to walk away from this wonderful device on the best network available, then by all means.

 

[kibble]

I guess his mom didn't pack a twinkie in his lunchbox. I would be irate too!

 

[ggp]

he says "scads of bloatware" but can only name one? I as well want cityid off my phone, but sure wouldn't give up the phone because of it!

 

[load97]

Irremovable bloatware sucks. I like a clean desktop, and I like a clean phone as well.

 

[Mr. Spontaneous]

he says "scads of bloatware" but can only name one? I as well want cityid off my phone, but sure wouldn't give up the phone because of it!

This. CityID (maybe Visual Voicemail, too) is the only piece of bloatware I can think of. The writer, while having a point about not being able to uninstall stuff, comes across as hysterical and ridiculous.

 

[kyler13]

he says "scads of bloatware" but can only name one? I as well want cityid off my phone, but sure wouldn't give up the phone because of it!

I wonder what's gonna happen when the 15 days are up and you don't want to subscribe. I guess it's just gonna sit there and take up space for the life of the phone? Better not keep bugging me about subscribing. I like it though it's of minimal value, and I'd probably pay $2 once for the app but I'm not paying a monthly subscription for it.

 

[cdodge]

Wonder if Timothy typed that on an HP laptop...

LOL i am pretty sure if he was using an HP laptop he would be busy fighting with HP about bloatware and not VZ.

My Envy 15 barely looked like a Windows machine when I got it. Thank god for reformatting

 

[yojoe600]

i have to say that this must be his first Verizon phone bc out of all the others ive had, this has the least bloatware

 

[branflake2267]

Joint the movement, speak your mind to Verizon, tell them you want the choice to remove the apps.

Remove Verizon Bloatware | Facebook

 

[Terabethia]

Also complaining to verizon is not the answer. Its HTC that is loading the bloatware on the phone and to be honest most of it is there to enhance most users experience with the phone. If certain apps weren't installed people would be complaining because it SHOULD come with those apps. Obviously an option to remove them would be nice, but i bet the majority of users don't mind the apps they include.

The most annoying stuff on the phone IS Verizon's, such as CityID and VZ Nav. And the are the ones that won't go away and leave you alone, and typically have a monthly fee.

The stuff that "enhances user experience" is HTC's, yes. Mostly Widgets though and not that annoying.


I think the real problem is that there is no way to remove these apps. People wouldn't complain as much, or care as much, if they could easily get rid of the crap they don't need.

The second biggest problem is that Verizon makes manafactures remove features that are part of Android and add in their own (PAY) features instead. Such as Mobile Hotspot. This is a feature that Android all on it's own can do. But Verizon makes them disable the phone's ability to do it and add's in their own app which costs $20/month.

There have been several articles about this recently which were interesting (to me at least):

Entelligence: Will carriers destroy the Android vision? -- Engadget

Like this guy says, bloatware is nothing new, it's been going on forever. But unlike PC's you can't just uninstall this crap on your mobile phone (well, not without rooting which is something that A) voids your warranty and B) the average user can't/wouldn't do).

 

[true]

I think his complaints are pretty legit. I can easily name at least ten apps i would remove if i could (without rooting):

Amazon mp3
App Sharing (i can just tell whoever to search the market.)
FM Radio
Footprints
Friendstream
Google Search
Latitude
My Verizon Mobile
Peep
Skype Mobile

others:
Talk
Teeter
and VZW Navigator

i dont need this crap in my applications list, on my phone, or anywhere near me. the icons are more of an inconvenience than anything, getting in the way and taking up space, but still..
..we do pay lots of money for not only the phone, but the service as well.

i'm taking Tim's side on this one.

 

[rushmore]

VZW's business case for products depends on the bloat as a part of it. If they remove the bloat, so does some assumed margin of profit for the overall trend of revenue of the device. VZW and some other carriers tend to approach this with horse blinds on.

Perhaps VZW should sell a bloat-free version for $20 more

Then again, one person's bloat is another's handy app.

I like having Amazon MP3, FM radio and Google Search. The social apps (read: battery & resource sucking apps) can all fall off a cliff.

 

[howarmat]

before you bitch about using battery, most of the bloatware apps dont use ANY battery at all. They are annoying yes, but dont hurt the battery