By Coming pre-installed on handsets is a BIG deal for mobile app developers. While consumers sometimes complain of pre-installed apps being “bloatware”, I’m of the mindset that if it’s not intrusive and can be deleted, carriers and manufacturers should add value how they see fit. Following that logic, LG has just worked out a pretty cool partnership with PapayaMobile to pre-install their games on LG Android phones in China.
Here is an example of how huge partnerships like this can be for mobile development shops: PapayaMobile has 8 million users in the US and Europe but expects to add 32 million users in China alone over the next two years. Think this partnership with LG is a coincidence? I think not.
Papaya considers themselves a social gaming platform and recently released an SDK in China so other developers can access Papaya users, game localization services and more.
I see a ton of opportunity for mobile app companies to capture huge marketshare and mindshare by offering their apps pre-installed on devices while also adding value to the carriers and manufacturers. In fact, didn’t I hear someone saying that the Phandroid App should come pre-installed on all Android Phones in the universe? No? Well whoever suggests THAT would be a pure genius.
“Well whoever suggests THAT would be a pure genius.”
I thought about this idea for the last few years…
Question, what kind of games does papaya mobile have?
On Android OS all pre-installed software comes in the System partition. The end user only has write access to the Data partition, so to delete a pre-installed app you need root access. They cannot be pre-installed in the Data partition because with every factory reset this partition is re formatted. Some unwanted rogue apps start at boot time by themselves consuming CPU and Memory (battery). This is why many people are against bloatware (me included). Better create a link to the vendor site in the home screen (that can be deleted) where you can install recommended apps if you like
Bloatware is fine as long as its allowed to be unistalled. Forcing it upon customers isnt right. we should have the choice of whether we want to keep it or not. I shouldnt have to root my phone just to get rid of some apps I dont want.
@M0nk you are right, of course, but they could have it pre-installed in /data/app/ (like most sensible custom roms do) because the average user will never do a factory reset, and if you do, tough luck. Still you could have a hidden app in /system/app/ that automatically reinstalls those apps after a factory reset, I guess.
This is kind of a bad thing for users. I have experience with Papaya Mobile; my friends and I were addicted to Papaya Farm for a while. But the problem is that the app does run in the background as a service, so if you can’t delete it, that sucks.