Lenovo’s Vibe Shot, a smartphone that launched yesterday, comes with 13 preinstalled Reliance Jio apps (Hat Tip: Twitter user Anupam), although thankfully, for now the apps can be uninstalled. Interestingly, according to this RTN.asia report, the phone at launch was likely to carry Reliance Jio branding along with Jio apps, as a precursor to Jio’s launch. However, it looks like the Jio branding was eventually scrapped. The preinstalled apps include Jio Chat, World, Social, Settings, Friends, Play, News, Experience, Beats, On-Demand, Drive, Broadcast and Mags (each app is prefixed with ‘Jio’). Interestingly, another user in the same Twitter thread mentions that the device would come with bundled with Jio data on Jio’s launch but no such statement was made by the company. Lenovo's Vibe is a pretty high-end phone with a 1080p screen, an octa core Snapdragon 615 processor and 3GB of RAM, so ideally the 13 extra apps should not really hamper the phone’s performance. However, more importantly, this sets a precedent for Indian telcos to install bloatware on user’s phones before users can lay their hands on them. The practice is extremely common in the US, where users buy phones on a contract basis from telcos. An important distinction is the reports that these Jio apps can be uninstalled, unlike much of the bloatware installed in the US. However, we imagine if this becomes a norm, carriers will eventually install apps in a way that can’t be removed without significant user intervention (rooting etc.). Additionally, if such a practice…
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