Samsung to let Chinese users uninstall pre-loaded apps

Samsung is to let users of its smartphones in China uninstall any preloaded apps they do not want to stave off the threat of additional court cases. The Korean manufacturer – alongside Chinese counterpart Oppo – was sued by a committee in China designed to protect consumer rights as it prevented Galaxy users from deleting preloaded applications.

To allow customers to uninstall preloaded apps, the manufacturer will make patches available to download at after-sales centres from next month but this may not be enough, with the committee confirming there are currently no plans to drop the lawsuit.

In a statement to KoreaTimes, Samsung said:

“Chinese consumers using Samsung’s Galaxy phones can now delete applications that were pre-installed because Samsung Electronics plans to provide software patches so things get done from next month.”

Samsung was sued after the committee found that 24 of the 44 pre-installed applications on the Galaxy Note 3 – with model number N9008S – were required in order to use the smartphone. While the move to allow customers to remove preloaded applications via the patches should appease some customers, it looks like the Korean manufacturer will be held to its promise with the committee confirming:

“If Samsung fails to meet its own promise, then the legal tussle will be continued and expanded.”

[related_videos title=”Galaxy in video:” align=”right” type=”custom” videos=”629200,625832,623586,614646,608203,597711″]On its website, Samsung China said it will allow customers to preloaded unwanted applications on all of its smartphones going forward, including the latest Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Samsung’s new devices have less bloatware than several previous Samsung flagships and while the preloaded apps can be disabled, it looks like users, in China at least, will be able to completely remove them to free up internal storage.

As the lawsuit only focuses on devices sold in China, it’s unlikely these patches will be made available to users outside the Chinese market. Do you think Samsung need to make these available to all customers? Would you like this patch for your Samsung smartphone and should other manufacturers follow suit? Let us know your views in the comments below guys!