Bloatware is one of the major complaints with Android devices. Preloading non-essential apps that cannot be uninstalled by the users are all too common in the Android ecosystem, and Samsung is no exception. From flagship devices to budget offerings, almost all the Samsung smartphones come with some amount of bloatware.
Depending on the market and the smartphone model, Samsung preinstalls apps from Microsoft, Hancom, Facebook, and others on its devices. On top of that, some carriers also add their bloatware to the devices sold by them. If all of that is not enough to ruin the user experience, Samsung has a new deal in place to preload new apps on millions of its devices.
Samsung and Oath will share the ad revenue
Reuters reports that Samsung has signed a deal with Verizon’s subsidiary, Oath Inc, to preload four of Oath’s most popular apps on Samsung devices going forward. As per the deal, Oath’s Newsroom app, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, and Go90 mobile video apps will be preinstalled on all Verizon Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones. For now, the deal is limited to the devices sold in the US but will eventually expand to all other markets. Oath is expected to officially announce the deal today in New York.
Like all other decisions to preload non-essential apps on your smartphones, even this is driven by financial considerations. Skyrocketing content consumption on smartphones presents a great opportunity for generating ad revenue, and this deal aims to do exactly that. Samsung and Oath will share the ad revenue generated from the preinstalled apps. The agreement allows advertisers to place “native ads” that blend with the content. We have to wait and see how that works.
