For most consumers, the happiest thing is to get a new phone, but once you turn on the phone and enter the desktop, you will be dazzled by the "broad of" pre-installed software. The first thing many consumers do after getting a new phone is to uninstall all the built-in third-par

For most consumers, the happiest thing is to get a new phone, but once you turn on the phone and enter the desktop, you will be dazzled by the "broad of" pre-installed software. The first thing many consumers do after getting a new phone is to uninstall all the built-in third-party software on their phones, and then go to the app store to download the software they need. Although the process is troublesome, it is at least more comfortable to use.

But don’t forget that many consumers, especially middle-aged and elderly people, do not understand what the so-called pre-installed software is, and they almost don’t care about it. Although it will not seriously affect their user experience, it will indeed occupy a certain amount of mobile phone system resources. It can be said that preinstalling a large number of third-party APPs on the mobile phone has seriously affected the user experience, but as ordinary consumers, we have nothing to do about it.

Photo source Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official website

Fortunately, recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Internet Information Office jointly released a "Notice on Further Standardizing the Preset Behavior of Mobile Smart Terminal Application Software " to be implemented from January 1, 2023. The most important point is that "manufacturers should ensure that all preset application software in mobile smart terminals can be uninstalled, and provide a safe and convenient uninstall method for users to choose from." Simplely put, later mobile phone manufacturers can no longer install various messy preinstalled APPs as unscrupulously when producing new phones. Why do

have so many pre-installed APPs?

In fact, in 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Interim Regulations on Pre-setting and Distribution Management of Mobile Smart Terminal Application Software ", which strengthened supervision of mobile smart terminal pre-setting and distribution application software, and clarified that only the pre-set "basic functional software" can be set to be uninstallable and other management requirements. In February this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued another notice, announcing the objects and scope of basic functional APPs that cannot be uninstalled. The terminal pre-installed application software behavior was indeed effectively standardized for a period of time after the release, but as time went by, this regulation has gradually been forgotten by the market.

From a good point of view, mobile phone manufacturers preinstall APP software for their mobile phones out of kindness, which is convenient for users who are not very familiar with smartphones. After all, for a user who has never been exposed to a smartphone before, if there is no third-party APP software preinstalled on the new phone and does not know where to download which APPs, will the smartphone soon become a "feature machine" with a larger screen?

Image source veer.com The picture has been authorized

, and most pre-installed software on the mobile phone are products with the top ten downloads in the application store. The number of users and the quality of software have been recognized by the market, which can indeed help those who are not familiar with smartphones to quickly get started and understand what smartphones can do.

However, the disadvantages of pre-installed software cannot be ignored. In addition to occupying the storage space of the mobile phone, its built-in advertising push will seriously affect the user experience. Although these annoying ad pushes can be avoided through manual settings, the setting process has a certain learning cost, especially for the elderly, there is no way to start. In addition, the push ads are highly induced (such as how much you can get after watching videos, and free gifts, etc.), it is easy for the elderly to click in.

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And many preset software directly writes the preset software to the bottom layer of the mobile phone system during the implantation process, causing ordinary users to be unable to uninstall normally, thereby ensuring the activation of the preset application software. Users can only operate these "cancer software" after Rooting their phones. The process is not only complicated, but also has a high operating threshold, which has led to many users being able to "sigh" at dozens of pre-installed APPs.

, knowing it is harmful, why do you still need to install it?

Since mobile phone manufacturers themselves also know that too many pre-installed APPs will affect the user's actual user experience, why do you have to continue installing?

actually pre-installed software is a vicious product brought about by the rapid development of the domestic mobile phone market. Since domestic mobile phone manufacturers have far exceeded those of foreign countries, mobile phone manufacturers' profits in hardware will become lower and lower, and pre-installed software will become another source of income for them.

According to industry insiders, for every software installed on a mobile phone, the manufacturer can charge software developers a "platform fee" ranging from 80 cents to 5 yuan. Although it doesn't seem to be much, considering that the annual shipment volume of domestic mainstream mobile phone manufacturers starts from tens of millions of units, it can easily achieve a revenue of over 100 million yuan.

Mobile phone manufacturers need high profits, software developers need to gain users, and both parties get what they need, which can be said to hit it off. Therefore, in the new mobile phones we buy, there are more and more third-party applications in addition to the basic functions and software that come with the system. It is worth mentioning that according to the actual tests of netizens, the two mobile phones with different pricing of the same brand have fewer pre-installed applications than those of the thousand-yuan phone. On the one hand, the flagship phones are aimed at high-end users, and excessive interference will cause disgust among these users. On the other hand, the profit of the thousand-yuan phone is not high, so it is normal to make some income from pre-installed applications and advertising.

, and careful consumers should have discovered that the new phone will not only pre-install a large number of third-party APPs, but will also bring system-level software such as a certain wallet, a certain mall, and a certain music. What's even more excessive is that these built-in applications not only has a large number of functions and information promotions that are not related to the application itself, but also forces users to only use the system's own applications. can not only bring certain profits, but also promote its own application industry, bind the APP applications they have developed, and realize the role of industrial chain promotion.

Image source veer.com The picture has been authorized

Judging from the announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the intensity of this action is indeed very strong and will inevitably have a significant impact on the entire market, but will there be a situation where there are policies above and countermeasures below like before? The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology naturally thought of this. The notice also required manufacturers not only to implement it, but also to formulate norms and standards to strengthen APP security management. APPs other than basic functional software must provide users with safe and convenient uninstall methods. Manufacturers can preinstall apps in advance on their smartphones, but the final choice must be returned to consumers. After the new regulations are introduced, the chaos in built-in Apps will be completely cured.

Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has put this into consideration, I believe that no mobile phone manufacturers dare to commit crimes in the short term. However, whether this notice will eventually turn into a piece of waste paper like five years ago depends on how mobile phone manufacturers and application developers maintain the order of the entire market.

Xiaomi 's razor plan will be a template?

For major mobile phone manufacturers, although allowing users to uninstall pre-installed apps will cause them to lose certain benefits, in the long run, this approach fully protects the rights and interests of users, improves the user experience, and is also conducive to the long-term development of the mobile phone industry.

. In this regard, the MIUI14 is the just released. Xiaomi stated at the press conference that with the support of the "Razor Plan", the Xiaomi mobile equipped with MIUI 14 only has eight essential basic functions: phone, text message, contact, file management, system settings, application store, browser and camera that cannot be uninstalled, and the choice is almost fully returned to consumers. Compared with mobile phone systems on the market that often pre-install dozens of software and cannot be uninstalled, MIUI14 is almost the cleanest operating UI on the market, and it just fits the new regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Image source MIUI 14 official website

MIUI’s approach is also in line with the ideas of most consumers. In addition to basic functions such as phone calls, text messages, photo albums, cameras and app stores that need to be retained, other third-party applications and some system software can be uninstalled according to user needs. Actually, we are not completely opposed to pre-installed applications. What makes most users dissatisfied is that the software cannot be uninstalled. When users buy a mobile phone, they should have full rights to use the mobile phone. You must know that whether a mobile phone manufacturer can go far ultimately depends on the user.

For other manufacturers, MIUI 14’s Razor Plan is indeed a good reference and learning object, but these alone are still not enough. As the saying goes, there are policies and countermeasures. Who knows whether some manufacturers will no longer mess with essential applications such as app stores and browsers. For example, they will continue to create open-screen ads to induce you to download third-party apps, or forcefully hijack the mobile phone system link, and you must use the "officially recommended" APP before proceeding to the next step, etc.

Photographed by Lei Technology

As mentioned earlier, the benefit of pre-installed software is to help middle-aged and elderly users get started quickly. So after mobile phone manufacturers reduce the number of pre-installed software, what should these consumers do? This is a great test of the guidance ability of mobile phone manufacturers. They must not only teach these consumers in a simple and easy-to-understand way how to download the applications they need, but also provide consumers with healthier and safer applications. They cannot directly push some new applications that have just been launched to consumers just because of some profit transactions.

In other words, in order to completely change the current situation of too many pre-installed applications on mobile phones, in addition to requiring the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to stop it, mobile phone manufacturers also need to optimize their app stores and related search capabilities. In a future with fewer and fewer pre-installed software, how can they meet user needs without unduly disturbing consumers' normal use. As for the outcome, it depends on the consciousness of these manufacturers.

What mobile phone manufacturers have to do is only "assistance", but if mobile phone manufacturers want to take back the usage rights from users, they have obviously put the cart before the horse.

After all, only manufacturers that respect users can go further.