Samsung has come under fire for pre-loading its handsets with its own apps leave customers with half the amount of advertised storage on flagship models.
Researchers have found that bloatware is rarely used by consumers, with many spending just seconds on the apps before instead deciding to use downloaded applications. Samsung supplies everything from chat to password applications, some pre-installed with the device while the remaining accessible on Google Play and Samsung App stores.
What is bloatware and what is its effect
Bloatware refers to any unwanted software pre-installed onto phones, tablets, or computers. As well as taking up space that can be used for photos and other personal files, bloatware can also slow down a device and deplete energy of the battery.
Owners spend less than seven minutes a month using Samsung apps.
Based on AppOptix March 2014 US panel data on 250-plus Galaxy S3 and S4 users, the total time spent across key Samsung Apps on its flagship devices - Galaxy S3 and S4 – came just under seven minutes, whereas the same Galaxy user spent 149 minutes among three Google Apps.
'In terms of content discovery and updates, Samsung Hub and Samsung App Store, its primary channel for content downloads, is again lagging behind the segment leader by a wide margin. ,' said the firm.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 owners still only get half the storage for which they pay.
Recent tests by Which magazine found that unwanted bloatware and system files still occupy 46 percent of the phone's internal storage - eight months after initial concerns were raised. At the opposite end of the scale, Apple's iPhone 5C was the best performing handset, assigning a relatively low 21 percent of storage to built-in apps and the iOS operating system.
Bonny Joy, chief at Consumer Telemetry Platforms, said: “Clearly, the Galaxy Sx series have succeeded in creating more engagement by growing the overall pie, but its own content and media strategy is faring low at the moment. The Galaxy S5 is a step-upgrade from the Galaxy S4, but as far as content and media is concerned, little has changed to draw consumer attention to its latest launch.”
AppOptix data shows a typical Galaxy S3/S4 user spends 64 minutes a month (combined) on Google Play, whereas the same figures for Samsung Hub and Samsung App store are just 36 seconds.
Barry Gilbert, vice president, said: 'Obviously, Samsung’s dominant position in the market is an ideal vehicle to drive own-branded content services across its installed base, but Samsung should develop a differentiated set of apps that will resonate with its key user base.'
One of Samsung’s famous apps, ChatOn, which is said to have crossed the 100 million users mark, is used for just 6 seconds per month by users. In comparison, users spend over 151 minutes on Instagram and over 11 hours on Facebook per month.
Bloatware includes apps and files that are added to handsets by the manufacturers and networks before sold to customers.
The S4 offers just 8.56 gigabytes of available storage, down from 8.8 gigabytes in tests carried out in May. Some of the preinstalled Samsung files are needed for its new features, such as eye tracking, air gestures and voice commands. Others, however, are unnecessary or unwanted utility apps, games and the S Travel and S Health hubs. Many of these apps and hubs cannot be removed.
As technology researcher Jon Barrow explained in a blog post, “The reality is every phone has to sacrifice some of its internal memory to the operating system - they never live up to the sales talk of 8,16 or 32 gigabytes. But many manufacturers further stuff their phone with pre-loaded apps, skins and bloatware. And no phone has more piping, braiding and frills than the Samsung Galaxy S4.”
Samsung responded to criticisms at the time advising people that a solution that to the problem is to buy a MicroSD card if they want extra storage. “For the Galaxy S4 16 GB model, approximately 6.85 gigabytes occupies the system part of internal memory, which is 1 gigabyte higher than that of the Galaxy S3, in order to provide a high resolution display and more powerful features to our consumers,“ explained the Korean firm.
