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Google Android Businesses Handhelds

Google To Require As Many As 20 of Its Apps Preinstalled On Android Devices 427

schwit1 writes Google is looking to exert more pressure on device OEMs that wish to continue using the Android mobile operating system. Among the new requirements for many partners: increasing the number of Google apps that must be pre-installed on the device to as many as 20, placing more Google apps on the home screen or in a prominent icon folder and making Google Search more prominent. Earlier this year, Google laid its vision to reduce fragmentation by forcing OEMs to ship new devices with more recent version of Android. Those OEMs that choose not to comply lose access to Google Mobile Services (GMS) apps like Gmail, Google Play, and YouTube.
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Google To Require As Many As 20 of Its Apps Preinstalled On Android Devices

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  • good (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I've waited my whole life for this...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Reeznarch ( 2465314 )
      Don't be evil (tm)
  • It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:38PM (#48021327)

    When a company moves from innovating to abusing its market share, it's usually not a good sign.

    • Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:42PM (#48021373) Homepage Journal

      When a company moves from innovating to abusing its market share, it's usually not a good sign.

      Except when you get a phone with an old version of Android and loads of proprietary bloatware 'innovation' the phone sucks in ways it would not suck if it just had the up-to-date integrated Google app suite and android versions.

      In this instance, the more Google succeeds, the better the products are.

      • Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Noah Haders ( 3621429 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:46PM (#48021411)
        For certain values of "better". If this is truly better, why is CM so popular.
        • Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ganjadude ( 952775 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:49PM (#48021455) Homepage
          most people who use CM still sideload google apps, I know I do
          • Re:It's sad (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Noah Haders ( 3621429 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:51PM (#48021483)
            Yeah but you choose the ones you want to sideload.
            • true, the choice is there, in my use case, first thing i do on a new phone is flash CM, and load gapps suite. I only use a handful of the apps ,but i dont ever come close to filling my storage so its just easier to load the suite. granted i know not everyone is that way but the sad truth is for many tasks, googles offerings are better than 3rd party apps. Navigation works beautiful, havent found a good replacement for that one yet.
        • My use case was to blow away the crappy, deranged, obsolete version of "Android" that my phone was stuck with and replace it with something closer to stock Android. Without even booting it up the first time, I sideload the gapps.

        • Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Andy Dodd ( 701 ) <atd7&cornell,edu> on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:17PM (#48021705) Homepage

          Much of why CM and other AOSP-derivative projects are popular is to get rid of carrier and OEM bloatware. Very few people don't install gapps, and while some of the gapps packagers (such as PA) now offer "micro" gapps packages with most of the unnecessary Google apps installed, the package recommended by CM (as in, linked from their wiki) is a complete one.

          This is effectively Google's response to OEMs (especially Samsung) putting on atrocious crapware that was ruining the Android experience for many users. e.g. "this is why OEMs can't have nice things".

          One of the biggest issues is that sometimes the OEM crapware would constantly hound you to create an account with the OEMs own ecosystem. Google's stuff, at least, usually doesn't hound you if you click "no" during the initial Google account setup. Samsung, on the other hand, would constantly spam me with persistent notifications until I rooted and removed their crap. Also, OEM/carrier crapware was far more likely to do funky stuff in the background without the user's knowledge/approval than GMS.

          • Re:It's sad (Score:4, Informative)

            by TheBilgeRat ( 1629569 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @03:18PM (#48022271)

            This.

            The LG G3 I got is preloaded with AT&T bloatware, LG bloatware, and the Google apps. 3 maps programs. One is useful. I see this more as a whipping tool to all the manufacturer and carrier garbage hard baked in the latest ROMS.

            • by jd2112 ( 1535857 )

              This.

              The LG G3 I got is preloaded with AT&T bloatware, LG bloatware, and the Google apps. 3 maps programs. One is useful. I see this more as a whipping tool to all the manufacturer and carrier garbage hard baked in the latest ROMS.

              It wouldn't be so bad if they would at least make the crapware removable without having to root your phone first!

              • Re:It's sad (Score:4, Informative)

                by darkain ( 749283 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @07:06PM (#48023883) Homepage

                In current Android builds, you can disable virtually all pre-installed apps. They can not be "removed" because the APK files are embedded in a single ROM partition, not the same storage location as downloaded apps. Disabling them is good enough though. They cannot run. They're out of the way. They're removed from any app lists. They're effectively gone, with only their package remaining on the static file system.

                • While its been years since I bumped up aganst filling up my laptop or desktop hard drives, I often bump into filling my phone storage. I suppose I should spring for a 32G-64G microSD since my phone is capable of that, but still. Out of the way isn't quite the same as not on my phone and not taking up megabytes of precious storage. It is a slight improvement, but a better one still would be decoupling manufacturers and carriers from the OS entirely.

      • Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)

        by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:48PM (#48021449) Homepage

        Well, some of the google apps are considered bloatware by some of us.

        The constant nagging to sign up for Google+, the automatic creation of accounts and the like.

        I prefer to use YouTube anonymously, if at all. Not so long ago on my Nexus 7 tablet, the app decided that I must have intended to sign up for a YouTube account and created one for me ... YouTube had its data cleared and was immediately disabled.

        Google has been a little too pushy with some of their services. I don't want your damned Google+, I'm not interested in it ... stop telling me I need the damned thing.

        I agree the proprietary bloatware is crap, and that's why I bought a Nexus branded tablet ... but don't think for a minute Google isn't also doing some annoying things.

        Sometimes, just launching one of their own apps can change your account in ways you didn't expect, and don't get told about.

        • by Anrego ( 830717 ) *

          I just created an empty shell of a google+ account like most people.

          I have a feeling this is what is driving google to get away from the mandatory google+ for everything. I reckon half of google+ is empty accounts created to make the prompts go away. To anyone who actually wants to use google+, they add all their friends only to find no actual activity.

          • Are the people who create an empty shell of a Google+ profile the same kinds of people who created a Facebook account just for FarmVille, Spotify (when it required one), Answers.com (when it required one), or The Huffington Post's comments section (which still requires one)?
            • by hodet ( 620484 )

              I don't know. But I created an empty shell Facebook account, my only facebook account, because it is the only way to access a slingbox on Linux. The FB Slingbox app works great. I never created a shell Google acct.

          • One of my accounts which I've had for years is definitely not my own name.

            Because I use it for different things.

            I've been studiously avoiding Google+ because of that stupid real-name policy, because the interweb isn't always a place you want to use your real name.

            I understand Google have relaxed the real name requirement for Google+, but I honestly have no idea of what the net benefit of it would be to me.

            I'm not interested in Google's vision of social networking everywhere. In fact, I'm actively disintere

            • I understand Google have relaxed the real name requirement for Google+

              Actually, Google eliminated it rather than just relaxing it.

            • I like google+, but I hate having a useless youtube forced on me. Google+ is where friends are. Don't know about facebook, never tried it, probably never will.

        • my google+ acct is pretty much only used for games. I have found that the majority of the android games I play make use of google + for logins, They dont force you to use them but i find it convenient to use it as i recall when my first droid crapped out all the save data was tied to the phone. im happy letting google think my sole function in life is to play plants vs zombies.
          • im happy letting google think my sole function in life is to play plants vs zombies.

            Don't you get it? You're not supposed to tell Google the truth in a shell account...

      • Re:It's sad (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:49PM (#48021463)

        1) Remember when simply bundling IE was a monopoly abuse? Google is behaving in exactly the same way, only corporatism has grown so powerful over the last 15 years that the Overton window extends infinitely off in one direction;

        2) There are loads of better options to Google's own apps. The first thing I do on an Android device reset is to install Link2SD and freeze most of the Android apps (and OEM apps, but there are fewer of them);

        3) The usual problem is with the base OS not being updateable, and with many built-in apps therefore not being updated either (my Messaging and Browser and Phone apps on Android 2.3.7 have been updated... never).

        • by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

          1) I think Microsoft also required OEM's to not preload Netscape. Don't think Google does anything like that - though requiring the Google search box in launchers may come close... Plus, Android has not reached anything approaching monopoly status (yet).

          2) You prove my point - nothing prevents you from loading alteratives.

          3) This does not apply to the Gapps suite - all of which are now upgraded through the Play store.

          Anything else?

          • 1) I think Microsoft also required OEM's to not preload Netscape. Don't think Google does anything like that - though requiring the Google search box in launchers may come close...

            I don't think so, Compaq shipped Windows PCs with Netscape preloaded. The real issue back then was Microsoft offered IE for free and Netscape charged a fee for their browser.

            Plus, Android has not reached anything approaching monopoly status (yet).

            Really? They pretty much own the global market for smartphones.

            2) You prove my point - nothing prevents you from loading alteratives.

            That's irrelevant, nothing ever prevented you from loading Netscape on your Windows PC either.

            For what it's worth I don't think there's anything wrong with Google doing this, so long as you can install alternatives there should be no issue, but then that's what I thought ab

      • by vux984 ( 928602 )

        In this instance, the more Google succeeds, the better the products are.

        Hardly. I like Android. But I'm not such a big fan of Google.

        The play store being installed is fine, and I'd actively like maps installed.

        I readily accept that the phone should come with email and a browser but I prefer other browsers to chrome and actively despise the gmail app. So I'd like to be able to easily remove both once I've got something else in place.

        I also have no use for hangouts, or google+, play newstand, and I'm not even

      • Re:It's sad (Score:4, Insightful)

        by SourceFrog ( 627014 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @05:02PM (#48023095)

        So you're saying it's a case of, "Google, products so good you need to be forced to use them?"

        If they're so much better, manufacturers would simply choose them by default.

        Sorry, but this is blatantly just a play out of Microsoft's old playbook ... by the day Google are behaving more and more like Microsoft used to, bullying everyone into using their products.

  • by tibit ( 1762298 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:39PM (#48021333)

    I think that the requirement to ship recent Android versions was long time coming and is sorely needed. The other applications aren't that much of a drain, I don't think, other than taking up some of the "native" storage. Low end devices (say a $100 tablet) that often only have 1G of built-in storage will be thus strained more. Yet storage prices keep falling, so I don't see it as that much of a problem. Cost-wise, soldered-on flash is anyway cheaper than a microSD card that has to have extra packaging and a separate controller chip.

    • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:49PM (#48021457)

      How is this not crapware that you are apologizing for? It was the scourge of the PC industry, we should not be welcoming it in mobile to a greater extent than it exists already.

      I agree with you that the requirement to ship recent Android versions is absolutely needed, but 20 different applications sounds awfully overbearing.

      • It depends on what the apps are. For example, the text message interface may be counted as one of the 20 "apps" but it is a requirement for a functional phone.

      • by langelgjm ( 860756 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:00PM (#48021557) Journal

        The alternative is a phone filled with either the OEM's additions, or the carrier's crappy branded apps.

        The cleanest phone you can buy is probably the Nexus 5.

        Those of us who want more control will be smart buyers and purchase hardware that is easy to load with custom ROMs, then we can decide exactly how much of gapps we want.

        • by CaptSlaq ( 1491233 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:16PM (#48021689)

          The alternative is a phone filled with either the OEM's additions, or the carrier's crappy branded apps.

          The cleanest phone you can buy is probably the Nexus 5.

          Those of us who want more control will be smart buyers and purchase hardware that is easy to load with custom ROMs, then we can decide exactly how much of gapps we want.

          The 2013 MotoX is probably the closest second. I haven't had a look at the 2014 MotoX, but I certainly hope they carried on the tradition.

      • well the reason for stripping these "apps" from the OS and putting them into the play framework is because of the OEM issue of taking forever to upgrade the phones. Lets be honest here, apps make the phones these days, and if the app cant be updated because verizon or whoever wont push out andoid (insert new version here) to your 2 year old, yet fully functioning phone, it eventually becomes worthless.

        By taking the apps out of it, it allows them more control on the functionality of the phone, even if the
        • Verizon used to remove the E-Mail application from the Motorola Razr V3 phone and charge you $10/mo for a subscription to the E-Mail Application. It was the same application, downloaded onto the phone. If you bought a Motorola Razr V3 from Motorola and activated it on Verizon's network, you got the same app for free.
          • Same was true with VZ Navigator. On one of my old phones (Blackberry), there was a fully functional GPS chip, that only worked if you paid the monthly fee. It is one of the reasons I'll never use VZ ever again. Verizon isn't just satisfied being largest carrier, it also wants to extract every penny it can from its customers.

            I hate them.

      • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @05:02PM (#48023105)

        but 20 different applications sounds awfully overbearing.

        The reason this sounds overbearing is that not all apps are immediately customer visible. Consider looking up the Play Store and search by the vendor Google Inc. and you'll get a lot of things that your phone already has by default without you realising:

        Search
        Text-To-Speech Engine
        Chrome
        Youtube
        Play
        Maps
        Drive
        Keyboard
        Voice Search
        Google Now
        Google Cloud Print

        These apps are already part of nearly every Android install as it is. Some of the rest of the 20 can be due to Google's (IMO silly) decision to split Play store content by type:

        Play Newsstand
        Play Books
        Play Movies
        Play Games
        Play Music

        So what is really left? 4 apps? I probably won't notice or care if 4 additional apps are installed on my phone, especially if it eliminates some of the crapware that already comes with it.

        Not all "crapware" is "crapware" when you realise that they are functions of a system that you already use. i.e. do you consider the Windows Print Spooler crapware too? As usual the article is sensationalist and people are freaking out.

    • I think it's better for a phone to run the version of android that offers the best user experience. Maybe a cheaper phone is best off with a lightweight android installation. The market should get to choose.
      • I think it's better for a phone to run the version of android that offers the best user experience.

        And many device manufacturers prefer to enhance their revenue stream and monetize your experience.

        The market should get to choose.

        The market never gets to choose.

        Because the market is always skewed in favor of the people who control the market.

        And they don't want it to be free and open, they want your money and ad impressions.

        The manufacturers don't give a damn what you or the market wants.

        • You do have the option to disable these apps, however. My phone came with a bunch of Google Play Music/Games/News shit I don't want, and Google+ stuff. The apps are all disabled, now, excepting a few that I do use such as the actual Play store, gmail, etc.

    • by Imagix ( 695350 )
      _And_ updates! Within some reasonable time of release by Google (shorter if they had access to the betas and RCs). For at least 2 years after the last _shipping_ of the phone (not from initial release date).
  • by NJRoadfan ( 1254248 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @01:46PM (#48021415)
    They are known for pushing their in-house apps above Google's or the handset manufacturer's. They also had that deal with Microsoft that made Bing the default search engine on all their phones ("Droid" branded ones excluded, the rest of their Android phones did have it).
  • What's the benefit of baking all these apps into the system partition? I've found that even after an OTA update, most have been replaced by newer versions in the data partition within a few weeks. Why not just provide the barest core apps and default to asking to download the rest? I vaguely remember Froyo or Gingerbread doing something similar.
    • Re:Why preinstall? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by JohnFen ( 1641097 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:11PM (#48021667)

      Because then most people would never install most of the apps, and Google needs as many people to install this stuff as possible in order to compile the most complete dossier on you that they can.

    • What's the benefit of baking all these apps into the system partition? I've found that even after an OTA update, most have been replaced by newer versions in the data partition within a few weeks.

      ... because you won't receive a notification that you can update a non-existent app. As long as I can remove what I don't want and install what I want, what's the big deal? For example, I don't use Google Music, but it's only taking up 14 meg, so I'll just leave it installed. If you're worried about space issues, take the plunge and delete something useless like the Facebook apps. Unless, of course, you like Facebook.

      My point is that most phones come with a decent amount of storage, and one 20-second

    • Standard feature set. No 'Go to the Gallery... oh, what? You don't have that?" "Pull up the browser.. what? Oh. First go to Market and install Chrome...". No unboxing the phone and spending 40 minutes getting Maps, a Web browser, and e-mail working, and then trying to figure out wtf media player you need (Apollo).
  • I use the PLAY store to get apps, and it has a bunch of other stuff integrated like music and movies that I ignore. That's fine. Buy why are there now all these separate PLAY apps? What's the point?

    • Think of them as shortcuts to just the section you want - though of course the real reason is marketing Google Plays' various sections.
  • Require OEMs to have >80% of devices sold in the last 2 years capable of running the most recent version of Android within 3 months of release.
  • by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:04PM (#48021593)
    How is this different from Microsoft and bundling IE?
    • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @03:23PM (#48022307) Journal

      Microsoft was busted for abusing their monopoly power to engage in unlawful, anti-competitive practices.

      For example, in Microsoft internal emails, executives discussed the fact that they understood they were hurting their own company, in order to hurt the competitor more. It's okay to try to make your product better than the other guy - that's competition. Intentionally making your product worse, in order to cause compatibility problems for the other guy, is not okay.

      99.99% of the time that's self-regulating - most companies can't go around intentionally harming their own company and products or they'll go out of business. A monopoly is a special case. In 1996 Microsoft had 99% share of the desktop market. Therefore they could intentionally damage the computer industry, costing themselves $4 billion, if by doing so they'd cost Netscape $3 billion and put Netscape out of business. Any ordinary company purposely costing themselves $3 billion would be committing suicide, but for a monopolist losing $4 billion in order to make your much smaller competitor go out of business is a "smart" move. That kind of thing is why there are laws about what a monopoly power can do and not do.

      Android has 51% of the market. They aren't a monopoly. If Google purposely creates a problem that makes Android worse, in order to also cause a problem for iOS, Microsoft would be jumping for joy. Microsoft only has 3.5% of the market, but they also have $380 billion to spend taking advantage of anything stupid Google might do.

      So Google isn't a monopoly, and their actions are competitive, not anti-competitive (in the legal sense).

      Do you also wonder about the difference between what Hans Rieser did and what Miley Cyrus did at the MTV awards?

  • by Snufu ( 1049644 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:05PM (#48021605)

    Google Intertubes Exploder 6 (TM) is tightly integrated with your Andoid operating system. Attempting to uninstall it will void your warranty, the screen will get scratched, the phone will prank call your Aunt, the battery will burst into flames, and you will get a bad case of athlete's foot.

  • And, as long as Google is forcing the OEM's to pre-load Google apps, why don't they force all apps to be deletable?

    When space gets tight (and this time will always come), I should be able to delete any app I am not using.

  • by jklovanc ( 1603149 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:09PM (#48021647)

    Has anyone seen the list of required apps?
    Are the apps on the list required to run the phone?
    Is this story a knee jerk reaction to incomplete information?
    Is this story click bait so people will sign up to theinformation.com?

  • by maliqua ( 1316471 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:18PM (#48021713)

    Getting less of Google crapware will be nice, but i fear that the OEMs not compliant enough to carry the google bloat, will create their own much more bloated and crappier crapware

  • by blueshift_1 ( 3692407 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:22PM (#48021749)
    Of course there are the usual complaints of "This is my device and I only what I want." However, I feel like it's naturally in their best interest to provide a standard user experience across multiple platforms. Since much of the mobile debate is with regard to OS instead of actual device, it's just a standard PR move.
  • In return for a free (and Free) OS, and a free suite of half-way decent applications, Google is asking to be "paid" in the form of some prominent exposure on the phone. Did anyone think Google was providing all this stuff out of the goodness of their hearts? Of course they aren't... the whole reason Android exists is to get you using services that feed Google more information about you, which they then sell; it's kind of their entire business model.

    If an OEM doesn't like this, they still get to use the OS

  • by mr_mischief ( 456295 ) on Monday September 29, 2014 @02:37PM (#48021873) Journal

    People aren't being forced to install the GMS to sell an Android phone. They are, however, being forced to install the entire GMS or none of it. There's no unbundling of just one or two apps and leaving the rest uninstalled. So if you want to sell an Android that has for example the GMail app or the Google+ app (or the Play Store app, which is the big clincher) then you have to install the others.

After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.

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