Not sure what timescale you're referring to when you're talking about "how bad the market got" and "today", but back around 2012 I got my first and last Samsung smartphone, must have been a Galaxy 3 or something, that had all of those problematic things too.
It seems like this starting to happen as soon as apps were installable on phones, even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regardless of how little you use them. Android, because of the whole OEM story, of course is much worse, but I don't feel like any of what you share is new, been going on for decades at this point.
And operators preloading questionable stuff is a much older practice than post-iPhone smartphones. If you had a feature phone in the 2000's, the operator would have customised it one way or another. The iPhone was revolutionary in how much Apple forced the network operators to relinquish control.
> The iPhone was revolutionary in how much Apple forced the network operators to relinquish control
And if AT&T wasn't as desperate to gain market share, we could have had a different story. Both Verizon and Sprint refused the iPhone because they didn't want to give up control. The bloatware was an important piece, but Apple also mandated control over OTA updates which the carriers did not want to relinquish either. The carriers were also opposed to the phone being sold in Apple stores.
I can remember Verizon being sued for forcing device makers to disable the ability to transfer files from feature phones to computers over Bluetooth, because they charged a per file fee to transfer files with their own proprietary software.
The funniest thing Verizon did was start their own bank. They wanted to create a new payment option on everyone's phone using NFC. Then bill and process payments via your existing telephone bill. Front runner app before Apple/Samsung/Google Pay services and potentially Visa/MC market disruption for insane profits.
My OG moto droid was pretty clean back in ~2009 or so, but even then there was plenty of sketchy carrier installed bloatware. Even my blackberry before that, feature phones even before that, had the carrier crap on it.
Part of why iPhone was such a breath of fresh air at the time it released. There was no carrier bloatware. Apple didn't allow it. Verizon turned down the iPhone because they would not agree to the no carrier branding and did not want to give Apple control over updates.
It's only gotten worse since then, but yeah its always been a thing.
At least with iPhone, there's still no carrier bloat, no facebook/meta, no linkedin, etc.
I'm not sure why Samsung continues to allow it either, they are also big enough to bully the carriers they could just as easily pull an Apple and kick all the spam off their phones, at least for the flagship models.
You can. I’ve removed Apple Music and Apple Maps (seriously, who uses that?) but apple makes extra sure most things are more annoying to use without maps. Calendar app with an address? Default to opening in Apple Maps which is missing so error message (twice). Find my? Also open in apple maps with missing app error message. Even with Google Maps set as default systemwide.
Yup. Even though it requires an explicit user action to make Chrome your default browser, don't worry, next time you click on a link, Apple will pop up a dialog saying that your default has changed, and your options are "Use Safari", or "Keep using Chrome", and guess what the default option is?
> even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regardless of how little you use them.
While a lot of the code that apps rely on is part of the OS frameworks, these days you can 'remove' most of the apps on an iPhone if you want.
That said, I would also argue that there's a difference between not being able to remove "Calendar" on iOS and not being able to remove "LinkedIn" on Android.
I can't remember if it was Samsung or something, but one of the providers shipped Android tablets with a custom-but-default keyboard which sent ALL your keystrokes back to the provider. That was a big nail in the Android coffin for me.
1. The game's been played for a long time. Which was my principle point.
2. PCs were then, Smartphones are now. The story's getting worse, not better. As you note, in the case of a PC the problem is easier fix, e.g., now is worse.
3. Unless there is direct and violent pushback, expect to see this shit forever.
4. The best solution during aughts for PC crapware was to wipe and install Linux. Now it's to wipe and install a free mobile OS such as Graphene. In both cases, this is beyond the ken or capabilities of 95%+ of the population.
You can't remove the Phone app from an iPad in iPadOS 26. Even when the iPad in question has no cellular functionality. The best you can do is remove the icon, but you get a dialog telling you it won't be removed.
Which is stupid as I don't want my iPad to be getting every voice mail and imessage and so on that my phone does. They are different devices and serve different purposes. My iPad is totally a media consumption device and I have no interest in it being integrated into my phone's communication functions.
You're not my tech support person so I'm not going to get into it deeply, but I don't mean the phone option of "Calls on Other Devices" (which is off on my phone) or the Messages option of "Text Message Forwarding" (which only has my Macs listed.) I mean that whenever I get a voice mail on a call it shows up as an alert on my iPad and Messages receives copies of various text messages, I think via iCloud as this happens when my iPad is at home and I am miles away with my phone at the office.
It seems like this starting to happen as soon as apps were installable on phones, even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regardless of how little you use them. Android, because of the whole OEM story, of course is much worse, but I don't feel like any of what you share is new, been going on for decades at this point.