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Apple somehow gets a free pass for having their bloated apps preinstalled. I mean sure yeah they aren't as bad as Samsung but still nobody gives a toss if Apple does it.

Good on India. Apple should ask you during set up which of their apps you want installed, download them and what defaults you want. If you skip everything then only the basics should be included such as phone, messages, safari and they should all be able to be deleted if you want to use a different dialler/messaging/internet browser app.
Well - just see where this has let other companies. Basic apps that used to be included in windows I now have to browse through MS's app store to find. And I have to figure out which are free and which are bloated with adds. Sometimes being faced with a gazilion choices is not the best.

If I buy a smart phone I expect it to come with phone, text message, email, calendar and webbrowser right out of the box. And I don't want to waste time on figuring out what browser might be best at protecting my privacy or who will just sell my data for highest bidder.

Apple is not preventing me from installing 3rd party options for these. They just provide it for my convenience. Not even sure they are profitting on these apps?
 
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Apple somehow gets a free pass for having their bloated apps preinstalled. I mean sure yeah they aren't as bad as Samsung but still nobody gives a toss if Apple does it.

Good on India. Apple should ask you during set up which of their apps you want installed, download them and what defaults you want. If you skip everything then only the basics should be included such as phone, messages, safari and they should all be able to be deleted if you want to use a different dialler/messaging/internet browser app.
The reason nobody cares when Apple includes their own apps is because they arguably aren't bloat. Notes? Calendar? Photos? All these apps for example are severely useful and used by the majority of iPhone owners, some of them crucial to the operation of the phone, like Photos and some other ones like Phone and Messages. And you can remove most of the pre-installed apps if you don't use them.

Samsung is heavily criticized for having bloat because they tend to go the route of "oh hey lets duplicate apps like the Google Play Store and such by creating our own versions of them", which by the way are arguably worse than Google's offerings in almost every definition, especially the Galaxy Store for instance which is in general just a very crappy storefront.
 
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it’s mainly about android phones having preinstalled tiktok, instagram, fb and so on
Commenters here understand that. This regulation is positive in many ways. The problem is if it applies to all apps, it means someone will have to be able to uninstall the Settings app on an iPhone. Then what will someone do to do almost anything? Is India going to provide the support to fix the phones in those instances or require Apple to?

Maybe the law is written to avoid situations like that. If so, it shouldn't be a problem. However, politicians don't always understand technology and don't always understand all the ramifications of bills they pass. At least the politicians were talking with some of the companies.
 
How would you get any other Apps on your device then? Without an AppStore and is "Settings" not considered an App?
[sarcasme]
No no no... next step is that you are provided with 3 identical options for an app store during install process. You have to guess which app store is the legit apple app store and which that are some scam attempts, that will bloat your device with adds and sneak-install other sh***y apps. That's total freedom which is in fact really good for you.

[/sarcasme]
 
it’s mainly about android phones having preinstalled tiktok, instagram, fb and so on
I think one of the issues is that those device that do this, do this because they don't actually have officially access to the play store because they are running cracked insecure roms to begin with. And then they advertise it as a possitive that they've preinstalled cracked versions of those common apps. You see this a lot on android car stereos as well, with cracked reverse engineered apple carplay and android auto support. It's all rubbish. But the crack down should be on those manufacturers not on having apps preinstalled.
 
I see why they are doing it from a security perspective (I dont know how safe Android phones are etc.)

but on the other hand..
isn't Apple utilising factories in India, and talk of a new huge factory being built there?
I'm sure Apple isn't going to be happy about this proposed change..

India shooting their investors in the foot..

Apple is not investing in India because they are so nice but because they have to!

If I remember correctly:
The Indian government requires that a certain % must be produced in India.
 
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It has been ages since I've switched from Android to Apple, but I do remember going through a significant number of Android phones that had apps I couldn't remove. Carrier apps from Sprint, I remember some third party apps I couldn't remove that I would never use. I remember using custom roms just to remove them.

I don't know if it's the same way now, but it was one of the benefits of switching to Apple--no carrier or advertising bloat. So I'm all for ALLOWING the removal of preinstalled bloat, particularly in cases where you can't uninstall it, but one of the nice things about the latest versions of iOS is the ability to delete apps I don't use like Stocks and such.
 
I see why they are doing it from a security perspective (I dont know how safe Android phones are etc.)

but on the other hand..
isn't Apple utilising factories in India, and talk of a new huge factory being built there?
I'm sure Apple isn't going to be happy about this proposed change..

India shooting their investors in the foot..

Money over the security of a country's citizens? Dystopian/American thoughts my dude.
 
Ok, so remove safe preinstalled Apple apps.
Won’t this just lead to an increase in users to download from a multitude of potentially spyware or scam alternatives?
Great policy.
 
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Yes! Give users the option of selecting Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari instead of defaulting to Safari.
 
I see why they are doing it from a security perspective (I dont know how safe Android phones are etc.)

but on the other hand..
isn't Apple utilising factories in India, and talk of a new huge factory being built there?
I'm sure Apple isn't going to be happy about this proposed change..

India shooting their investors in the foot..
Agreed. Almost seems ungrateful. I believe VPN companies no longer have servers there because of the security requirements.
 
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And calculator. We know how important the calculator app is to some people here 😂
Well… look at the options on the iPad. There’s (for some reason) no calculator so you have to navigate through the options of “free” (add filled) or payed options in the App Store.

So imagine they’re forced to remove that on the iPhone!
 
Does not really surprise me to be honest. Ever tried to get something as simple as a prepaid sim card in India? What a pain in the A ... I am not sure if this is related to the drama involving Pakistan but India as a whole seems to be very tight on surveillance / security.

ALSO, 3rd party Apps is one thing but if you do not even trust the pre-installed Apps from vendor X, why even allow those devices to be sold in the first place?!? Might as well question the OS or hardware as a whole
Back to a pigeon with a note tied to its legs. But do I really trust that pigeon?🤔
 
This has nothing to do with consumer welfare, and everything to do with India maintaining an iron grip on tech companies doing business there.

Apple should know by now that you simply cannot put all the eggs in one basket. India, China, Vietnam…it doesn’t matter.
 
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From The Government Playbook, rule #137:

When you have doubt that others can see through your politically motivated reasoning, remember to refer to the ultimate reason: "national security"
But only when "For the children is not expected to work!"
 
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