Samsung, Oppo Face Chinese Lawsuit Over Pre-Installed Smartphone Bloatware

Bloatware, Bloatware, Bloatware! We all hate bloatware. And with the exception of a few companies like Apple, Motorola, and Google (with its Nexus devices) there aren’t many ways to avoid factory- or carrier-installed bloatware without rooting a device. One of the biggest offenders in years past has been Samsung, and the company is feeling the heat for its obnoxious behavior from the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission.

The commission’s secretary general, Tao Ailian, fingered not only Samsung, but also Chinese OEM Oppo Electronics for egregious behavior when it comes to pre-installed apps that can’t be removed by the consumer. "The litigation is our latest attempt to safeguard consumers' rights after other methods failed," said Ailian. "We hope it will force other companies in the sector to end the unreasonable, but common, practice of pre-installing apps without telling consumers. This is something that is very much necessary for the healthy development of the whole industry.”

Phones from Samsung and Oppo were by far the biggest offenders, with the Samsung SM-N9008S (known to us as the Galaxy Note 3) featuring 44 pre-installed apps that couldn’t be removed. The Oppo X9007, however, took top honors with a whopping 71 apps that couldn’t be removed by the end-user. SEVENTY ONE!

In addition to robbing customers of precious storage space, the commission also found that many of these rogue apps were quietly leaching off customers’ cellular data connections in the background. And what is the customer supposed to do when these apps can’t be removed or disabled?

As a remedy, the commission is asking manufacturers to make it clear what apps come preinstalled on the product packaging (this would be especially hilarious in the case of Oppo) and provide customers with detailed instructions on how to remove them.

Quite frankly, we wish that action was taken here on U.S. soil to rid smartphone of both manufacturer and carrier crapware/bloatware. Carriers are already bleeding customers dry with pricey voice/data plans, so why should we have to put up with their sponsored apps and junk as well?