Android has a serious problem, one that plagues pretty much anyone who doesn’t buy a Nexus device straight from Google. That problem is bloatware, copious amounts of that useless software which everyone hates that hogs up resources and storage space. However, this problem may very well be resolved, at least to some extent, once Google becomes a wireless carrier.
Bloatware, the crappy and unnecessary software that comes preinstalled on your new computer, has been around since AOL paid PC makers to roll its dial-up service into their machines back in the 1990s. But that era may be coming to a close. Last week, the world’s largest PC maker, Lenovo, vowed to “eliminate what our industry calls ‘adware’ and ‘bloatware’” from its PCs. The company was forced to do this when it got caught sliding a seriously dangerous piece of adware called Superfish onto its laptop computers. Lenovo’s pledge is a win in the battle against bloatware. But in 2015, PCs are now a bit of a sideline skirmish. The most important front right now is Android. On phones running Google’s mobile operating system, the forces of bloatware are winning.
