See: Android One
No bloatware, updates available.
No bloatware, updates available.
That said, what do you prefer: The ability to install a ROM of your choice, or a guarantee that what you boot is what you bought?
Having a locked bootloader means I an unable to truly install what I want.
This isn't a hard problem. We solved it decades ago. There should be an "Smartphone Kernel" that gets updated like the Linux kernel with drivers for all variety of hardware that you can install on most every phone as is. Vendors could cut out drivers for hardware they aren't using, but a random person should be able to install a generic kernel and boot the phone. Android would be the userland installed on top of that kernel. But it seems like vendors are more interested in maintaining lock-in instead of simplifying their maintenance and update tasks.
Right now Samsung seems to be number one in android phones. what benefit would they get from doing this? Making it easier to update their old products? They don’t care. All that does is make people buy fewer new phones.
Across all the vendors they could save time… but I kind of doubt they’ll ever do it. I don’t think that motivation is strong enough for them to change the way they do things.
I'd like that as well of course but vendors don't seem very interested in cooperating with each other right now.
I don't know about your definition of bloatware but that stuff is definitely included in mine.
Yet that isn't commonly called "bloatware"... because, of course, it isn't.
Bloatware is commonly understood to be third-party software, often of questionable utility and quality. Not first-party.
(*The suite is only preinstalled on 32GB+ devices.)
It's basically an example of how Apples strategy with tight grip on their platform makes so much sense. iPhone owners don't have to worry about any of that. Generally phones are supported way longer and updates available even for older phones.
Really? I have a folder on my iPhone three pages deep called “apple junk” which is nothing but all the apple pre installed bloat apps that I never use.
Do some people find a use case for them? Sure. But there they are on my phone. Pre installed and just taking up space..
I'd probably buy an iPhone if it cost like $300 and didn't have all the bells and whistles. Not because I can't afford one. I just can't see myself spending $1000 on a device where the main use case is communication via WhatsApp.
The iPhone SE came out at $400, and dropped to less than $200 (locked) a couple of years ago.
Currently the cheapest iPhone here is the iPhone 8 4.7'' and it costs about $550 USD.
Not sure about yours but mine spams me to sign up for Apple Music every month, came bundled with GarageBand etc and bugs me about creating a Memoji, spams up my messaging app/emoji tray with animojis etc.
The days of iOS being the restrained stoic only what you need OS are over because marketing needs to push features to sell handsets and services.