Who decides what's on my phone?

Posted By: giovanni | Oct 20th @ 8:30 AM
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Comments: 6 | Views: 584
#Oct 20th @ 8:30 AM
giovanni
giovanni
...

My old HTC did not endure the harsh treatment I reserved for it and I had to buy a new phone. I eventually got an HTC Touch2 because it was in my price range and it supports sync with hotmail and exchange.

 

What surprised me was the number of apps that come with the phone. While on Windows we have some degree of freedom of what is installed on it and what isn't, on Windows Mobile not only you are bound to what MS provides but also to what the manufacturer (or, worse, the serice provider) decide you should use.

 

I mean, why do I get Opera AND Internet Explorer?

Why is there a third party GPS program (paying service by the way)?

Why do I have Google maps?

Why is there a link to an ancient Live Search widget?

 

Why can't I choose the aps I want, say from the Marketplace?

 

Shouldn't I be able to legally and easily make my own rom like I can make a custom install of Windows on a PC?

#Oct 20th @ 8:39 AM
Dodo
Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

There's also those new MIDs, I'm pretty certain smartphone and MID will merge very soon, running a PC operating system. It's all part of some project called the new efficiency or something.

#Oct 20th @ 9:14 AM
PaoloM
PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

Apps are installed by the carrier and/or the manufacturer.

 

No, you are not entitled to make your own ROM; you can do it but you can forget about warranty, etc...

#Oct 20th @ 9:58 AM
daSmirnov
daSmirnov

You can of course remove the things you don't want, and install the things you do want.

 

Want Pocket Doom?  Grab it, Quake 3 Arena just grab it and install.

 

Want to use the Marketplace, just wait a little while and it'll be available for 6.1.  If you can't wait, just grab it now.

 

The beauty of Windows Mobile is that it isn't locked down.

#Oct 21st @ 3:02 AM
giovanni
giovanni
...

Yes, I know, and I find it very wrong. PCs are much more customizable and yet we complain about current limitations, why should mobile phones be any different?

 

This reminds me of the crapware problem on most new PCs. While in this area Microsoft has been able to force some improvement, in the mobile word this is still a plague also for other OS, especially on phones branded by carriers. IMHO this is one the best point of the iPhone, which does not suffer this problem because Apple is its own manufacturer and is able to enforce strict rules on carriers.

 

@daSmirnov: you can't remove certain things like IE, Opera, Google maps and the search widget very easily (they don't appear in the remove apps): you need to make your own rom, but then bye bye warranty, support, etc.

#Oct 21st @ 3:55 AM
daSmirnov
daSmirnov

You can remove them with a little work.

 

You can remove all the customisations by hard-resetting it and stopping the HTC and any network installers that start up after first power up.

#Oct 21st @ 4:16 AM
giovanni
giovanni
...

That is neat, do you have a link to a how to?

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