Microsoft may want to take a page from Samsung's smartphone strategy book in its quest to re-win the hearts and minds of Windows users.
Samsung is providing smartphone customers an easy way to strip out bloatware and what most users consider useless apps and tools pre-loaded on its impending Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones.
That's the rumor on Monday from a few media outlets, although there is no official statement from Samsung on such a smartphone device option.
If it's true, it could prove to be a winning touch by Samsung since smartphone users have very little patience for pre-loaded software, unless it happens to be something amazing. Bloatware has long been a complaint heard by Microsoft Windows and software tool users.
The move, as reported by one media outlet, may tie into a new law passed in South Korea, Samsung's home base, which states all apps on mobile and computing devices should be removable by a user.
Samsung's TouchWiz app is about as loved as Microsoft's bloatware in Windows and software suites.
The news apparently originated in a developer forum from a pre-release Galaxy S6 user. There is supposedly a much smaller amount of pre-installed software on the impending smartphones, possibly even about 40 percent less, and what's there supposedly can be easily deleted. The pre-loaded app list includes Skype, Google apps, and a few other Microsoft ditties, such as OneDrive and OneNote as well as Samsung's S Voice and S Health apps.
Allowing smartphone users to have such control over pre-loaded software is a bit of a gamble as pre-load typically ties into hefty third-party software revenue for smartphone makers. Maybe Samsung is willing to give up a bit of that money in exchange for luring new handset users onto its sleek and slim flagship devices, which are due to arrive on April 10.
While it may appear to be an innocuous move by Samsung, the fierce competition in the smartphone market is driving handset makers to tweak everything and anything to gain market share and consumer adoration. With form factors and display technology no longer the big competitive elements, it may just be the small considerations that make a big difference in the future of smartphones and mobile computing devices.
