Guidelines will be announced requesting the removal function of unnecessary applications preinstalled on smartphones

ByJim Trottier

Many unique smartphones have pre-installed manufacturer's applications, and many applications can not be deleted or invalidated, and it is often a problem that impaired users' convenience. Under such circumstances, guidelines were announced in Korea to ask manufacturers to install functions that allow users to delete pre-installed applications in smartphones arbitrarily.

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http://www.msip.go.kr/www/brd/m_211/view.do?seq=1290

South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable | ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/south-korea-rules-pre-installed-phone-bloatware-must-be-deletable-7000025533/

Korea · Future Creative Science Division announced "Guidelines for Installing Smartphone Applications" on January 23, 2014, and in this, clearly indicating pre-installed applications (plain applications) and plain users We are requesting smartphone manufacturers to install a function that can be deleted arbitrarily.

It is usual that most smartphones have many manufacturer's unique prein applications installed. For example, 25 popular SK Telecom applications, 39 Samsung applications, and 16 Google applications offering Android OS are included in Samsung Galaxy S4, a popular smartphone sold in Korea from the SK Telecom line. It is said that 80 plain applications are included.


Many of the preinstall applications can not be deleted or invalidated by the user, so unnecessarily occupy the storage capacity, and depending on the operation which the user does not intendConsumes battery significantlyIt is a very obstructive existence if the user can not delete it arbitrarily because of problems such as.

According to the guidelines issued this time, smartphone manufacturers will be able to arbitrarily delete all prein applications except Wi - Fi connection, NFC, customer service center related application store, and application stores, It is expected that at least half of the plain applications will be deleted. The guideline is effective from April 2014, and it is expected to be applied to all smartphones released in Korea since then.