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Microsoft Android Cellphones Software

Report: Samsung Replacing Its Apps With Microsoft's For Galaxy S6 148

Posted by Soulskill from the trading-proprietary-for-proprietary dept.
An anonymous reader writes: SamMobile is reporting that the next major revision of Samsung's Galaxy S line of phones is going to have some major changes. According to insider sources, Samsung has gotten rid of many of their pre-loaded apps, making them optional downloads. What's interesting is that they're replacing these apps with software from Microsoft — apps like Skype, Office Mobile, and OneDrive. "With Windows Phone failing to make a dent on the smartphone market, Microsoft has recently shifted focus to its software services, and having them pre-installed on one of the bestselling Android smartphone lineups might just give the Redmond giant the exposure it needs to court consumers into switching from Google's massively more popular services that come preloaded on all Android devices."
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Report: Samsung Replacing Its Apps With Microsoft's For Galaxy S6 More

Report: Samsung Replacing Its Apps With Microsoft's For Galaxy S6

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  • Now you have the choice (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If you hate to see Microsoft go, if you want to see Microsoft thriving on the mobile scene, please people, please buy more Samsung phones!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Sigh. Bye Samsung!

    • With Windows Phone failing to make a dent on the smartphone market

      It may have failed to make a dent on the smartphone market, but it's made a considerable dent (more like a smoking crater) in the desktop PC market. MS claims that they'll fix some of that in Windows 10 (Windows Phone, aka. 8, being so had that they skipped an entire version number to get away from it), but I'm taking a wait-and-see approach.

    • It's a license fee trick. Samsung installs this stuff and doesn't pay ms then for patents. Makes it harder for xiaomi etc to break into euro and use area without paying or getting sued, so gives them an edge.

      They used to manufacture a token number of windows phones and do lip service to ms for same reason.

  • I'm guessing, but given how preloaded stuff has a bad air about it, like a public lavatory that is never properly cleaned (thanx Rowling), MS might not be doing themselves a favor here.

    • Here is the key. The headline should read "Samsung trades in house unremovable crap for Microsoft unremovable crap." The point is, your shit on my phone and fuckall I can do about it. One reason I do not rent^H own one of their phones.

    • Re:Preloaded Crapware? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cheesybagel ( 670288 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @10:46AM (#49054747)

      People have been asking for Samsung to get rid of its proprietary apps and use stock Android and Google Apps for the longest of time and now that they finally removed their apps they put Microsoft's in. Jesus.

      I guess it is time to buy a Chinese phone with stock Android.

      • Re:Preloaded Crapware? (Score:4, Funny)

        by Oliver Wendell Jones ( 158103 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @11:35AM (#49054973)
        Did all those people asking also say "And once you take your crap off, don't put anyone else's crap in it's place?"

        If not, it's really their fault for not being specific...

        You can always root and uninstall or freeze apps you don't want.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by lgw ( 121541 )

        People are used to MS Office. Have the Office apps on your mobile will be easier for most - and frankly, a huge improvement over the crap most phones come with. All of my older relatives use Skype, so presumably that will be welcome as well. Perhaps all the MS apps appeal more to an older crowd?

      • I have an S3, and the crap software (buggy, intrusive, annoying) that Samsung has installed has convinced me to leave the brand when I upgrade. What a clueless company. And for everyone saying "just root your device" - 1. We shouldn't have to in the first place. 2. It isn't that simple and easy for everyone.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sqlrob ( 173498 )

          Cyanogenmod works great on an S3

        • Re:Preloaded Crapware? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @06:43PM (#49057205)

          Call me crazy, but I buy Samsung for the hardware. I couldn't give a shit about what software comes on the phone. I use my own apps, organise the phone the way I like, I really don't see this as being something dramatically out of the ordinary.

          For the past 10 years we've been buying computers and phones loaded with useless crapware. Why should now be any different, and also what makes you think any other company is any different? (Stock Android devices excepted of course, which by the way Samsung sell as a Google Play edition of their premium line).

          Also there's no need to root, Samsung have a way of hiding and freezing any apps that you don't want visible to the system. Unfortunately they come back when you do an OS upgrade because the apps themselves are part of the OS image.

          • How do you hide and freeze this? (App on Google Play [google.com]). More info: http://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-security-or-arrogance/ [zdnet.com].

            • I'm not entirely sure why you suggest that removing a part of a device which enables corporate security is such an issue. Are you suggesting we remove the group policy editor from windows too?

              Personally I think the introduction of Knox was actually not such a bad idea.

              The zdnet article doesn't help. Every battery complaint I've seen has not been a trend.

              • Because it downloads updates in the background automatically? Because "decline" doesn't let you decline. Because "accept" doesn't stop the reminders.

                • Given the world where users don't give a shit about security and keeping things up to date, where my email is filled with spam sent by compromised desktops, and script kiddies command botnets large enough to take big corporations online, I don't at all see a problem with removing the choice of how devices get security updates from the user.

                  • Read the articles I linked to - where the company refuses to give info about what (and how much) is being downloaded. Then there is the fact that if a user is advanced enough to find the screen to disable an app - they know what they are doing and should be allowed to. Removing choice is crappy. In the end it doesn't matter whether or not you see the problem. Samsung lost a customer :).

          • Call me crazy, but I buy Samsung for the hardware.

            You're crazy.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by rdnetto ( 955205 )

            For the past 10 years we've been buying computers and phones loaded with useless crapware. Why should now be any different, and also what makes you think any other company is any different? ...
            Unfortunately they come back when you do an OS upgrade because the apps themselves are part of the OS image.

            That's how it's different. If you get a new computer loaded with crapware, you can still uninstall it within Windows, or just reinstall the OS entirely if you wish.
            With the Android crapware, you can't uninstall them, and if the phone has a locked bootloader, you can't replace the OS either.
            It's very much a question of how much control you have over what runs on your device.

      • Surprise! The Chinese phone also comes with uninstallable crapware. As a bonus, they put messages in the system drawer in Chinese.

      • Don't log into it then.. It's like 80 Meg's out of 2 gigs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lehk228 ( 705449 )
      if microsoft and samsung can unshit the pre-loaded office software for android, I will seriously consider a samsung for my next phone.

      my blackberry came with good office software, my asus transformer tablet came with ok office software (good tools but limited version with annoying restrictions on creating new files from scratch) there is no excuse for mobiles to come with lousy software.

  • Ok then I won't be upgrading to an S6. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There's no way I'm going to increase the risk of exploits on my phone with software from a vendor with such a poor security record as Microsoft. And yes, I actually am ok installing the closed-source Google apps package because time has shown that that the attack vector is lower with their offerings.

    It's purely a data and numbers thing, not fanboi-ism.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      There's no way I'm going to increase the risk of exploits on my phone with software from a vendor with such a poor security record as Microsoft

      Microsoft's record post-XP is way the hell better than the vast sea of exploits that is Android apps! I have an old Android phone with years-old vulnerabilities that no one has any interest in patching. At least with MS you get a company that understands the need for an update infrastructure.

      • I have an old Android phone with years-old vulnerabilities that no one has any interest in patching.

        Blame your carrier for that. Most times they're just not interested in pushing out an OTA update because "money".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by lgw ( 121541 )

          I've never had a phone on contract. WTF does my carrier have to do with patching in any damn way?

          • Doesn't matter if you're on a contract. The carrier is the one responsible for OTAs because it's their network you're using.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by lgw ( 121541 )

              Only because the OS abdicated the role. There's nothing fundamental stopping the phone OS from patching itself across any network, except possibly carriers' desire to be dicks for no reason (a nearly infinite desire).

            • Doesn't matter if you're on a contract. The carrier is the one responsible for OTAs because it's their network you're using.

              Never had any issue with carriers denying updates to my iPhone, you only get that on Android.

  • As for Skype.... (Score:3)

    by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @09:49AM (#49054519)
    ...I'd have to install it anyway. The two other apps will just have to be removed manually. That shouldn't take long. And someone will probably release a tool to get rid of that. The irony is that many companies fight to get their [crappy] software on MS Windows (anti-viruses and other suckware), and now MS has to operate the same move on a rival phone OS...
    • Why should you have to fight (and beat it bloody with a stick) to remove apps? Seriously, this preloaded and unremovable crapware is a menace.

      • Why should you have to fight (and beat it bloody with a stick) to remove apps? Seriously, this preloaded and unremovable crapware is a menace.

        I'd be interested to know where you get that the apps are non-removable?

        • I'd be interested to know where you get that the apps are non-removable?

          Just buy a Samsung phone from Verizon. At that point, most of them... (unless you beat it with a stick / root the phone)

        • The Zynga app is not removable on the Samsung Galaxy S3. I don't know if it was Samsung or T-Mobile that put it on, but if you "disable" it, and restart the device, the icon comes back. It is re-enabled on restart. Cannot defeat it unless you root.

        • I'd be interested to know where you get that the apps are non-removable?

          Any app that is part of the OS image and resides in a read-only partition is not removable. That makes up nearly all apps that came from the manufacturer and often even some apps that came from your carrier if they were loaded as part of the carrier extensions.

          These apps you can freeze or hide from view, but never remove. Worse still the freeze and hide process (at least the last few upgrades) has not passed through the OS updates so when you upgrade Android the apps return in the app drawer.

  • I'm really trying to decide if this is a brilliant corporate move or totally insane that they are abandoning their base

    • I'm really trying to decide if this is a brilliant corporate move or totally insane that they are abandoning their base

      How are 'abandoning their base'? We have MS software on rival platforms like OSX and there are plenty of open source programs that run on proprietary systems like Windows and OSX. I'm not sure where people get the idea that companies shouldn't support other platforms, that would be bad for everybody.

  • It doesn't matter who codes it or the quality of code. Just a quick check on google store comments will show you that people _hate_ bundled software.

    It happened to everyone, check Layar, Shazam and even Google play services which enables otherwise impossible things on older firmware.

    Even a small shareware developer, if clever, won't allow his/her software to be bundled.

    I can't even imagine security implications of this. Microsoft doesn't understand Unix & Java. Never did.

    • Can't read past the headline?

      The bigger message that Samsung is going to make most of the bloatware uninstallable and optionally downloadable has been completely ignored here.

      Instead of praising Samsung for the move, everybody jumped on the hate train as soon as they have seen word "Microsoft" in the headline.

      • Re:They are both disconnected from reality (Score:4, Insightful)

        by starless ( 60879 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @10:55AM (#49054791)

        Can't read past the headline?

        The bigger message that Samsung is going to make most of the bloatware uninstallable and optionally downloadable has been completely ignored here.

        - The details are still unknown as this is essentially still just a rumor.
        - The article says it appears that the Samsung apps are going to be optionally downloadable.
        But it is unclear whether the MS apps that replace them will be removable/downloadable, or whether those will work the same way as the current Samsung apps do. (i.e. not able to remove without rooting phone.)

    • Are you claiming that people are seriously complaining about a smartphone coming with an email client preinstalled?

  • What is needed (Score:3)

    by Gonoff ( 88518 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @10:22AM (#49054637)

    I'm not sure that it is even possible but is needed is a very simple app that clears off all the bloatware and apps that nobody wanted anyway.

    It can't leave the phone unlocked as most users are not even aware of what root is and could cause even more awkwardness to themselves.
    That would also cause some supposedly secure apps to stop working as the phone would now be "insecure.
    It would also block business use as MDMs would block the devices.

    I remember there used to be the Decrapifier for new Windows PCs and people who did not feel able to uninstall things themselves.
    Somehow, I imagine that Google would not been keen and manufacturers would be even less enthusiastic. PhoneCos would be even more anti!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by adolf ( 21054 )

      I'm going against my normal judgement here, but...

      Consider that most people think of their phone as a device that already does things, and not as the general-purpose pocket computer that a lot of folks on /. might.

      They are probably happy that their new phone handles their email, browses the web, can open a PDF or Word document, and back their photos up to a cloud service. They may not notice (or care if they do notice) that it behaves differently than any other phone.

      And, generally, the OEM pre-loaded prod

  • better idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kimvette ( 919543 ) on Saturday February 14, 2015 @10:57AM (#49054801) Homepage Journal

    I have a better idea: preload nothing but the OS and desktop environment (well and key utilities like voice memo/dictation software and an alarm clock) and leave the rest up to me.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by msk ( 6205 )

      Mod parent to 6.

    • I just got a second gen Moto X from Wind Mobile and it has no extra crap ware install vs what was installed on my HTC from them 3 years earlier. Now if I could just uninstall all Google shit with out root that would be nice.

    • Disagree. For most people, it's about the "Out of Box Experience."

      I go buy a phone with a camera in it, I expect to take it out of the box and start taking pictures. I don't expect to have to go find a camera app and do the research before taking my first photo.

      That said, I should be able to remove said camera app and replace it with one that I think is better.

    • > preload nothing but the OS

      Which leads to the question what is the OS.

      The point being many current andropid distributions make the os something other than default (and what is default anyway).

      So people complain that they cant remove essential parts of an os on something they got. Maybe research it better, tools.

    • What makes those apps special and not the 10,000 other pre-installed crapware they put on phones. I don't even mind the pre-installed part, but make them so I can remove them from the phone with no trace they were there. and give me the option to wipe to bare os with no apps if that is what I want.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jez9999 ( 618189 )

      I have a better idea: preload nothing but the OS and desktop environment (well and key utilities like voice memo/dictation software and an alarm clock) and leave the rest up to me.

      It's called Cyanogenmod.

    • But how is Samsung supposed to get money from Microsoft for putting their apps on the phones if they do that?

    • I have a better idea: preload nothing but the OS and desktop environment (well and key utilities like voice memo/dictation software and an alarm clock) and leave the rest up to me.

      Funny change of thought in the mobile world.

      What was one of Linux's biggest selling points is that out of the box it could do everything. Most distros came with productivity programs, a variety of online tools to get connected, and even some esoteric stuff like science programs. Windows used to get grilled for the same reason for being useless out of the box as it didn't ship with anything other than IE and a 30day trial of a $150+ office suite.

      Now fast forward to today and we're saying we want our OS to be

    • The problem with this idea is - Google won't let it happen. Not unless some government forces them to. A manufacturer is _required_ to load _all_ of Google's proprietary apps onto _all_ of its Android phones (or none at all on any phone). This leaves Samsung, Microsoft and all others in about the same place as Opera and Mozilla back in the ie6 days - yes, you can choose to install some other app with the same functionality, but it will always be a second choice, and by many it will be viewed as 'bloatware'.

  • Goodbye Samsung (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Samsung has become the next Nokia. Once dominant in the market, only to see their market share dwindle in a few quarters. They grew too quickly and spread too thin, releasing 3 smartphones a week and one tablet per week in 2014. No way to differentiate, even from their own products. Sounds just like Nokia around 2009-2010.

    Samsung's financials last year and especially last quarter show that the company has made a downturn.

    And now Microsoft is supposed to save them? How does that even work? Did you not study

    • Samsung has become the next Nokia. Once dominant in the market, only to see their market share dwindle in a few quarters.

      If by dwindle you mean drop by a few percent will still being the market leader by a large margin losing only against new entrants in the market and not to it's biggest rivals then yes you would be right. What a death spiral that is.

  • .. unless it comes fully rom-unlocked and you can trivially replace the factor MS crap with a AOSP load or something.

    I wonder how much MS had to offer to PAY samsung to do this. (I'm sure they've agreed to strict confidentiality on that)

  • this will not have been done out of charity purposes. my guess is that MS gave something on the order of 2 billion dollars. Mind you, I don't have coy qualms: the problem is, they'll have a built-in incentive to "monetise" the apps ["premium" content, degraded base versions, making sure that alternatives do not work]. to give an example on how these things work, you cannot install the Western digital cloud client on the Amazon Kindle, since it would cannibalize revenue out of amazon cloud.

    Now, the one (o

    • this will not have been done out of charity purposes. my guess is that MS gave something on the order of 2 billion dollars.

      It's probably part of this deal [arstechnica.com]

  • I had almost every S series phone: S1, S1Adv, S2, S4 and now S5. And I loved them.
    But I don't want microsoft software on my smartphone.
    Now I guess it's time to end this and switch to a different device.

    I think Samsung is not listening to their customers at all:
    We don't want microsoft crap. That's why we use Android over Windows Phone.
    On the other hand we want Tizen at last, but you only release some low-end device.

    Start listening to customers, or you will end up like microsoft.

  • They're ditching Samsung - not Google - apps for Microsoft ones. So it's just a different sort of crapware. It'll get uninstalled before too long, or not used. It does nothing to bridge the gap between Android and Windows Mobile or whatever its called (I don't even care any more). Nothing to see here.

  • Strategic Change at Samsung (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is there more to this than meets the eye?

    First we had the story that Samsung Smart TVs would record anything you said in front of them, and then send that data off for parsing in order to make the voice-control features work. Except they are/were being coy about where the data went, and who else could hack into the TV to listen to conversations.

    Next we had the story about a "mistake" that left users in Australia, who were trying to stream hi-def movies from paid-content providers, with "adverts" popping up

  • Google's massively more popular services that come preloaded on all Android devices."

    More like Google's massive amount of crapware that you never use, can't delete, can't move to a smartcard with 10x the memory of the internal memory.
    • Interesting. I clicked on this and there were no comments. Made the above comment and now I see lots of comments, starting 3 hours ago, all saying the same thing I did. sigh.
  • The Standard Operating Procedure in Microsoft is to try to buy marketshare. Pay to use Bing!, selling Xbox at a loss for decades, complex illegal bundling and pricing to keep Netscape and other office suites out etc etc. Unless it had a de-facto monopoly in the platform and OS, it rarely succeeded. Even when it succeeded it only delayed the inevitable. Out of the ashes of Netscape came the phoenix (was Firefox called phoenix at some earlier time? Or am I confusing it with the email client that became thunde

    • Out of the ashes of Netscape came the phoenix (was Firefox called phoenix at some earlier time?

      Close. It was called "Firebird," and you're right. The analogy was to a phoenix that rose out of Netscape's ashes. Thunderbird, part of the same product suite, was named after Firebird. However, there's an Open Source database program that is also called Firebird, so Mozilla had to change it.

  • As somebody who really likes the price/performance point of samsung *Hardware* i have to say that I appreciate if they stop to put their randomly changing (sometime functions vanish when you update) office suite and their completely weird and buggy "communications" crap on the device.

    If they have a long-term thing with MS that wil mean that Office mobile will get better because there is money to make for MS, and that they replace their useless bloatware with thing which i alreaady use.

  • I'm wondering who is 'winning' from this deal?

  • First sue Samsung over Microsoft' Android-related patents, then get them to bundle MS apps in return for dropping the lawsuit. Tony Soprano would be embarrassed.

    "Microsoft sues Samsung over Android patent payment dispute [independent.co.uk]"
  • since the "standard Samsung apps" are horrible or non-existent. The G5 doesn't have a "standard document app", nor does it have a "standard" cloud app. It's all carrier-specific. Google drive doesn't count it's still an app you have to install usually. Here's [laptopmag.com] a list of g5 pre-loaded software. They all have Polaris Office pre-loaded, other than this there is no cross-handset standard apps. What I really wish Samsung would do is remove Knox and it's anti-root stuff. Putting extra steps in my rooting is a

  • What utter crap. The anonymous reader has it all wrong. It's obviously made up and is inaccurate and so are the assumptions.
    1. Having MS apps is a boon. Better than the equivalent android crap.
    2. Windows Phone has made a mark and a discerning buyer will choose this over most android devices. No need to root it.
    3. If a manufacturer wants to go pro, then they will (and do) provide a Windows phone in their line-up.
    4. Onedrive and Office+ the camera roll is a phenomenally good setup. Far superior than the g

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cederic ( 9623 )

      1 - The equivalent Android crap is equivalent to the MS apps, or it wouldn't be equivalent. I'm not commenting on whether the MS apps are crap, but you have just merely suggested that they are better than the crap they're the same as. Luckily the Android ecosystem includes non-crap alternatives too.

      2 - Windows Phone has made a mark, and the discerning buyer may choose it over many android devices, but wont choose it over other android devices. Especially if they did choose it the first time

      3 - Many manufact

  • This is the beginning of Microsoft creating a competing ecosystem on Android. At some point in the not so distant future it will be entirely feasible for an Android manufacturer to dump Google's software stack in favor of Microsoft's. Unlike Samsung and many other handset manufacturers, Microsoft has the know how and capability to create and maintain a viable alternative to Google's ecosystem.

  • MS must have paid Samsung a lot to commit suicide. I've been using Android for a long time and my last few devices have been Samsung. Finding MS crap on my expensive new device would really piss me off. Skype was something that I used for many years, even using their official Linux client, but MS buying Skype broke too many things.

    Being a bit anti-MS doesn't stop me from being annoyed at how intrusive Google has become on Android. The "...Google's massively more popular services..." comment ignores the

  • As long as they can be uninstalled, great. If they're always installed then boo.

    I've got a long term investment in the Google infrastructure, for better or worse. I don't want to be directed to use a different infrastructure (OneDrive, etc), and I don't want that cluttering up my phone. Luckily I expect it is easily fixed this time round via installing the correct apps from the Play store, but what about the future?

    Some major money must have passed hands. Shame.

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