Samsung is facing a battle with end users concerning its agreements with software companies to set some preinstalled software on Samsung mobile phones to be undeletable. Users have found that applications like Facebook can't be uninstalled, which has caused some distress given the recent data breaches and lack of respect Facebook has shown towards its users in the past decade. Some users have sworn off getting another Samsung phone if apps can't be uninstalled. The argument that users can just hack the phone to get root access, and then force remove the apps does not hold with non-technical users and anyone who can't risk bricking their device. Samsung has refused to comment on this, and specifically will not provide details about agreements it has with software vendors to force their applications to always be installed on Samsung phones. By comparison, the iPhone does not ever come with pre-installed third party applications.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by iamjacksusername on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:32PM (1 child)
Samsung does not care because people keep buying their phone. I have been using Sony Xperia XZ phones for a few years and, to their credit, Sony has been aggressive about getting their stuff into the AOSP and making it very simple to unlock the bootloader. I was just looking at the XZ2 Compact Dual SIM model because you can use it, with a bit of effort, on both VzW and ATT and it is certified for VoLTE on both.
So, if it is such a big deal, vote with your money and do not support companies that block you from managing your phone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @09:23PM
Xperia phones also have first-class support for SailfishOS, which is really nice. I'm using a Xiaomi though, and they also make unlocking and reflashing easy.