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Micromax Remotely Installing Unwanted Apps and Showing Ads
jones_supa (887896) writes "Reports are coming in that users of certain devices by Indian phone manufacturer Micromax noticed apps being silently installed without their consent or permission. Uninstalling these apps won't help, as they will be automatically reinstalled. Alternatively, instead of downloading apps, the phone might litter the UI with stack of notifications which are advertisements for online stores and other apps. It turns out that the "System Update" application is responsible for all of this. When starting to tear down the application (which is actually called FWUpgrade.apk on the filesystem), the first thing you notice is that it's a third-party application. A Chinese company named Adups developed it as a replacement for the stock Google OTA service. The article shows the potential abilities of this app and how Micromax customers can work around the disruptive behavior."
Had to terminate that POS because it's ALWAYS RUNNING and chewing up RAM on my 1GiB phone. WTF Google?
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Only on Android.
If you have an app, on iOS, you'll make more money selling it ad-free outright in the App Store. But on Android, you won't make much if you sell it outright - you're far better off putting ads in the app.
Ad-based apps on Android generate far more money than ad-based apps on iOS. LIkewise, Ad-free paid apps on iOS generate far more money than paid apps on Android. (Usually because the Play Store isn't available everywhere, nor is Google Checkout/Wallet, so if you have a paid app, that pretty much eliminates your app from showing up in half the places Google Play is available).
So no, raping customer information is NOT a standard business model. Especially since on iOS you can restrict access to your contacts, location/photos (which are a location proxy). Hell, you can't even track a user across apps easily anymore.