By Remember when Vodafone’s HTC Desire got an “upgrade” that placed a bunch of uninstallable Vodafone 360 apps on the device? Remember when you passionate customers put the fire beneath their bums and forced Vodafone to reverse their decision? Well the same looks to be happening with their Samsung Galaxy S, though it’s not certain if users will be able to scrub the bloatware off of their phones once the upgrade to Android 2.2 is released (whenever that may be).
One of Vodafone’s administrators chimes in with the following:
Hi dnairb001
Thanks for your post here. I appreciate how frustrating this must be for you.
Unfortunately the Vodafone update that you have received cannot be removed. However I understand how you feel about this and will feed this back to the powers that be just as we did with the feedback we received with the HTC Desire update.
I cannot promise that the same thing will happen but we will do our very best to let people know how you feel regarding this.
Thanks
Wayne
eForum Team
So the waiting game will continue here just as it did with the HTC Desire. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for you guys.
why is vodafone messing up so many Android devices?
-first the Magic, which is still stuck on 1.5
-then the Desire update, which they pulled back, but only after loads of complaints
-and now the same bloatware on the Galaxy Tab
havent they learned anything?
i wonder whats next…
I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again:
root root root
rm rm rm
They’ve been doing this for years with Nokias and SEs. Which is exactly why I buy SIM-free and then just get a SIM-only contract.
I like the way the poor guy on the Vodafone front lines pretty much admits that they got a huge backlash for screwing with the Desire.
Remember when Vodafone’s HTC Desire got an “upgrade” that placed a bunch of uninstallable Vodafone 360 apps on the device?
So from this statement they sent people apps that they couldn’t install?
Did you mean to say that they couldn’t install the Vodafone 360 app that they had received?
Not trying to be a nit picker but just wanted to be clear.
Jarl – The Magic got a 1.6 update, which isn’t really Vodafones fault, it’s HTC – they haven’t upgraded it. Well, they have the Rogers one, but that has more RAM, so what’s possible will vary.
@slave, interesting reading. read it to mean the apps could be uninstalled. but it didn’t make any sense for people to complain about something they could just remove themselves so i assumed he meant non-uninstallable(meaning they could not be uninstalled.)
@simon: i totally agree. screw carrier bloatware.
Won’t somebody think of the children?!?!
The Galaxy S phones are all simple to root, and then uninstalling the bloatware is trivial.
I have a galaxy s from vodafone and I’ve not had any notification about un update. Whilst I’m not in any hurry to have any bloat ware am I missing something? My wifes dext and my old milestone both had’ check for updates option but I can’t se it on my galaxy, anyone know if this is normal? Cheers
betacomment
Which other carrier that starts with the letter “V” also likes to bloat phones with crapware?
Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless.
Yes, the Galaxy S phones are easy to root, but people should not have to root their phones in order to get rid of carrier bloatware.
I also think most people don’t really care. How many Windows machines have you seen riddled with bloatware from companies such as HP, Dell, etc.? How much effort do “normal” users put into getting rid of all that bloat. Zero! That’s why these mobile carriers get away with bloating phones.
That’s one good thing that Apple enforces with iPhones: no carrier bloatware.
(Before I’m rabidly accused of being an iPhone fanatic, I have a Moto Droid on VZW rooted, overclocked and running CyanogenMod 6.)
@AndroidsOfTara
No bloatware annoys many people, however the normal user does not know how to uninstall that bloatware that HP happen to put on their computer, therefore frustrating them even more.
Google has control over their Google apps and branding.
They should force it so that all third party apps can be removed by the end user if a carrier wants to also include Google apps and branding.
This behaviour is fucking despicable from Vodafone, yet sadly expected.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s hilarious that the post says, “I appreciate how frustrating this must be for you?”
I know it’s just me being nitpicky, but when I read that I started laughing.
It’s typical Vodafone arrogance. They think if they keep trying these tactics that people will give up complaining. What they don’t realise is that today’s smartphone users are tech-savvy and want control of the phones they own.
Hi There
We’re continuing to look into this matter and please rest assured we’re listening to your feedback. Our technical team is now working on a resolution to give Galaxy S users more choice over how they use 360 services, including the option to remove them. This is being looked at as a priority and as soon as we’ve got confirmed details we’ll share them with you.
“In the meantime, we can tell you that it’s likely we’ll implement these changes through the forthcoming Android 2.2 update. This may mean there is a slight delay in delivering Android 2.2 to you because, due to the newly planned changes, the current version has to be re-worked and tested but we hope our variant will follow soon after Samsung releases the open market version.
Kirsty
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK