Verizon Offered To Install Marketers' Apps Directly On Subscribers' Phones (adage.com)

According to a report on AdAge, Verizon Wireless is trying to add more bloatware to Android phones by installing apps from other companies in exchange for payment. From the report: The wireless carrier has offered to install big brands' apps on its subscribers' home screens, potentially delivering millions of downloads, according to agency executives who have considered making such deals for their clients. But that reach would come at a cost: Verizon was seeking between $1 and $2 for each device affected, executives said. Verizon started courting advertisers with app installations late last year, pitching retail and finance brands among others, agency executives said. It has only offered the installations on Android phones, because Google's software is open for carriers to customize. Apple controls its platform more tightly. The proposed deals with brands ensure that their apps download to only new devices when consumers activate the phones and their software for the first time.

Comments

Carrier Phones - RIP

[Carcass666]

There doesn't appear to be much of a reason to buy a carrier-bound phone anymore, especially Android.

• Security updates are few and far between
• Major OS updates are almost non-existent
• Blocking of OS functionality (ex. expandable storage on SD), WI-FI calling
• Vendor bloatware
• And now, third-party bloatware
• Little financial benefit (what little there ever was) in subsidization

Basically, if you want an Android phone that will remain supported, you almost have to go non-carrier Nexus

Re:If I can delete them. I don't care

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the PC industry all over again. Kickbacks for crapware, installed by default. Permanent product placement on your app screen and no option to remove it.
The last Lenovo laptop I bought wasn't able to play Skyrim because crapware kept getting in the way and stealing focus, locking up the GPU.

Now it's a race to see who is going to root the device first - the malvertisers with root certs or the users with jailbreaks.

Re:If I can delete them. I don't care

[geek]

If on the other hand I can't, the phone's going to get unlocked and rooted. All carriers should take note - we're getting closer to a discontinuity in how much we're willing to be abused.

So what happens when Verizon pushes out a malware infested app that roots your device?

Re:Apple Fanboy Here

[ZiakII]

How's escaping the tyranny of Apple's walled garden working out for you? Meet the new boss, worse than the old boss.

Fine because I just buy a Google Nexus Phone and can do whatever the hell I want with it? Unlocked boot-loader, root access, because its my own piece of hardware.

Re:If I can delete them. I don't care

[Locke2005]

You're capable of following the directions on the web to unlock and root your phone -- that's makes you a very atypical phone customer! Most people are too stupid to understand what their carrier is forcing them to do.

What a crock of shit the "shareholders" idea is

[SuperKendall]

This is their fiduciary duty to shareholders.

This is utterly wrong. They have a duty to try and keep the company healthy. Angering customers who then leave is doing the opposite.

What you and all of the other ignorant people that parrot your "fiduciary duty" crap fail to realize is that money is only one metric of a companies success, and even that is measured in the long term. Otherwise I could literally offer them one dollar to have all sales people dress like rabbits and they would be forced to do so because $1 is greater than $0.