Galaxy Note 7: Korean Govt. forces Samsung to preinstall their app

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The Korean government has allegedly forced Samsung to preinstall an application on its upcoming smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7, and users are not thrilled about it.

Korean advocacy groups have expressed criticisms against their government after it allegedly forced technology giant Samsung Electronics to preinstall an application on it phone. The application, called “Government 3.0,” will come preinstalled on the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 7, Samsung’s newest smartphone.

An unwanted app on the Galaxy Note 7

According to the Green Consumer Network in Korea, the preinstallation of the application to the smartphone would create “inconvenience” for users and “reverse discrimination” against the Korean technology company.

“The ministry said it had consulted with Samsung to preinstall the app on the smartphone, but it arm-twisted it to follow the order rather than consultations,” the Green Consumer Network said in a press release.

Government 3.0, which was released three years ago in hopes of promoting new Korean governmental policies, has only recorded 30,000 downloads so far. According to the Green Consumer Network, this has been a “complete failure.”

The Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has in the past created initiatives to help reduce the number of preinstalled apps on smartphones being sold in the nation, and Samsung’s decision regarding Government 3.0 clearly doesn’t follow suit.

Bloatware for the people

Preinstalled apps, or “bloatware,” have long been the source of many a complaint from users that claim the software is generally useless, but consumes battery and memory space. Often, these applications can make a device run slow and sluggish.

Nowadays, many computers and devices ship with a wide array of preinstalled software, most of which is often considered my many users to be useless and a waste of space and computing power. While some of these programs can no doubt be quite handy, most are not, and they can be difficult or even impossible to fully uninstall.

If, upon release of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung does in fact preinstall Government 3.0 onto its devices, hopefully users will have the option to fully uninstall the application.

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