South Korea rules that all smartphone bloatware must be removable

The South Korean government clearly appears to have the best interests of its smartphone users in mind.

Recently announced industry guidelines dictate that all "bloatware" loaded onto smartphones must be deletable. Only applications that are critical to the function of Wi-Fi connectivity, near-field communication (NFC), the customer service center, and the app store are exempt from this ruling.

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said that the new guidelines aim to "rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players." The Ministry believes that its measures will empower smartphone users with more data storage and better battery life.

This ruling will mostly notably affect South Korean company Samsung and its line of Galaxy smartphones, the most recent of which suffers from a lack of available storage due to pre-installed bloatware.

Perhaps government pressure will encourage Samsung to follow in the footsteps of its better behaved siblings (the Google Nexus line) and other rivals who already adhere to South Korea's new guidelines (see any Windows Phone device).

Source: zdnet.com